Today's been all about getting my things in order and getting ready to say goodbye. I've been stressed all day, wondering if my bags are going to fit, wondering if my plane's going to be late, wondering if I'm getting sick or if it's just Piter's terrible air... Added to that, when I went to pay for my room this morning Natalya and I spent about an hour on the phone arguing with the credit card company and whatnot--my credit card wouldn't go through! And I only have so many roubles left here. Eventually it cleared, but not until I busted out my driver's license and social security number. Then I crossed my fingers and hoped it would work later.
I headed down the the Aleksandr Nevsky Lavra, which is basically like... well, I don't know the Catholic equivalent, but it's the higest rank an Eastern Orthodox church can attain, and the outside was gorgeous. In the complex there were 4 different graveyards--one for military, one for scholars and priests, and two for more famous chaps. I only paid to go in one, and again I was amazed by the intricacy of Russian grave markers. Some had full-on mini-mausoleums, there was one fountain, and the sculptures were just incredible. Saw Dostoevsky's grave, that was pretty cool--there were even fresh flowers there, which made me strangely happy. Do people leave flowers on Mark Twain's grave back home? I'd like to find out. Then I walked up to Ploshad Vosstaniya, but not before agonizing over teapots and teacups at a Lomonosov Imperial Porcelain store. Still questing for Aunt Chrissie's teapot, and furthermore, I wanted to buy Masha something nice for her wedding. I don't really know what to get for her, but mom had suggested maybe a pair of nice teacups--fine china and then I could buy an identical one too, and say that whenever we drink from our cups we should think of one another. Finally I decided on some pretty white and silver numbers and stepped up to the cashier--only to be rejected. Mom didn't get my text messages and I frantically texted Curtis to wake her up. Thanks to him we got the ball rolling on the credit card company, but I had to meet Masha for lunch and gylyating, so I headed up to Chainaya Lozhka.
She brought Vova! Immediately I clammed up, and it took a long time for me to relax enough to speak decent Russian. We talked about lots of different things while we ate, and then decided to head towards the Summer Garden. By the time we reached Gostiniy Dvor' it started raining pretty intensely, and Masha asked if I had time to go to the Zoological museum. I thought about it, knowing now that I would have to go back and buy my tea things, then find someplace to leave them for her (I was already thinking Gerzen), and I sad no. I almost started crying when we said goodbye, especially because Vova produced a small little box, and Masha told me it was because she'd remembered my birthday was coming up. The generosity and friendliness of this girl are incredible! Finally we parted ways and I dashed off to Gerzen, where somehow I sweet-talked my way into the hotel and up to the 3rd floor. Very rudely I barged in on the current ACTR Pete's director and outlined my sad story, begging him to take care of my teapot. I think ACTR only employs the coolest people, because he and his Russian partner were more than happy to oblige. So then I had to go back down to Ploshad Aleksandra Nevskovo and make my way back to the tea store. And, can you believe it! My Peruvian friends were in line, purchasing a zoo of miniature porcelain animals. What are the chances!? We hugged and cheek-kissed again, talked a bit and after my credit card went through, said "See you tomorrow!" Part of me would love to stay the extra day just to see if it could possibly happen.
Now I'm almost back home--I have no idea how I'm going to fit everything into my suitcases, whether I'm carry-oning it or checking things (hopefully all the way) through. I can't wait to go to the bathroom and take a nice shower--but I think I'm meeting Susan & Co. for sushi dinner tonight, and of course I have to see Marina before I leave. Tomorrow, breakfast at 8 am so I can get to Pulkovo airport super early, and then hopefully on to Moscow, then New York. I can't wait to get home and see everyone--especially after the running around and rain all day, I'm ready to go home, stop worrying about travel an my dirty clothes, and relax.
Phew. I'll definitely miss this place, though.
Thursday, July 17, 2008
Wednesday, July 16, 2008
July 17, 2008 || Meet-up With Masha
Well, today started off as early as in camp--I just couldn't sleep past 8 am, and I was waiting for Aria to come blasting over the speakers. I got up and ate a wonderful breakfast of blini with my host and the Russian pair, who raved about Valaam (sad that I'm not going to be able to go--there's just not enough time!), while the Americans headed off early to finalize some things. Their 10-day wait got waived, so they'll be leaving tonight for Moscow. Oh memories!
I met Susan early at Nevskii Prospekt metro, and we headed to the Hermitage from its opening at 10 am 'til about 1:45pm. I saw quite a few things that I'd never seen before (Egyptian sarcophagi, early Islamic art), and revisited some of my old favorites (giant golden peacock clock, halls of French art). I texted Luka but we didn't see him at all inside--however, the Peruvians I sat next to on the airplane to SPB found ME! The friendlier one tapped me on the shoulder, pulled me in for a hug, and asked how my trip was. We exchanged pleasantries and moved on, but I thought it was pretty cool to randomly run into people in Russia.
We ate at a great little pie shop, definitely a local joint, and then I left to find Masha. It was so good to see her! She looks great, dyed her hair darker and is smiling all the time. We talked about lots of things, both of us have had exciting years--me with boxing and scuba (Jaclyn, you do such frightening things!), and working in the camps here, and her finishing school and getting married. I didn't know it until tonight (probably she explained to me before but I didn't understand) but she and Vova met while working at a Russian children's camp! What are the chances... we walked towards the Lavra, all the way off the map, and even saw where her old school was (I don't want to look at it anymore! I graduated, I don't have to come back!). We reminisced lots, and went to see the beach festival outside of Peter & Paul Fortress. Judging will be tomorrow, so I think I'll go back after I visit the lavra and a banya ... in just a few hours. When we exited the metro, I tried so hard to get her to speak English--she never does and I really wanted to hear her practice. I mean, she reads Danielle Steele novels in English, so her grammar must be pretty good. But she was so afraid of making mistakes she completely clammed up. I felt almost like I was watching myself last year--nowadays I don't really care if I make mistakes anymore--the more confident you are, the better you speak. But when you don't feel comfortable in a language, so much of you is lost--your sense of humor, the complexity of your thoughts, your spontaneous feelings and snap connections to culture, that you inevitably seem like a 2-dimensional person (I'm sure this contributes to why we view foreigners as "other" all the time). We wandered around some more, then met Susan and some of her friends for dinner. What a fun group of people! A Katya, a Yulia, and twins: Masha and Dasha. We ate at a traditional Russian place and shared all sorts of stories, mostly camp ones. Their English was all very good, and again, I don't think Masha had a great time because she was very shy about speaking English. Her voice changes too! I think everyone's voice does, between Russian and any other language. Russian invariably makes your voice drop.
Wandering around with a paket makes me feel more Russian--I was even told that I'd picked up a Russian "bad habit." Oh well, I'll take that. Tomorrow both Marina and Susan talked about going to Petergof, but I don't really want to kill a whole day there. Like I said, I plan on chilling at the Nevsky Lavra, then visiting a banya and the beach sculpture contest. Hopefully I'll see Masha again (I've got to think of something great for a wedding present, I really miss just being able to talk to her whenever like we do, about films and literature and life and dreams and, really, it's amazing what you can end up communicating even when you don't speak the same language), and then I think I'll try to see both Marina and her friends and Susan and her friends again. Sushi for dinner, drinks somewhere else.
Oh, before I forget! Fidel is closed, and Dacha, because of their building undergoing remont--except they're gone for good. Too bad, really--they're the only 2 bars I might have gone to alone, since I know them and they're so close (not to mention always filled with Americans). Then again, I'm content having wine with dinner and heading home to a shower, book, and bed.
I'm really such a homebody, all this night life is completely wasted on me.
Home in just a few days! It's getting to be time--you know how when it's time to go, you start to get ready for it? Well, I've been preparing for awhile, sorting all my dirty clothes into "junk" and "keep" piles, relishing the thought of chucking all my dirty tapochki and toiletries, hoping I can squeeze everything into carry-on (but considering how many souvenirs I have, between all my new sweatshirts and jackets and notebooks and bric-a-brac and CDs, I doubt that'll happen).
I met Susan early at Nevskii Prospekt metro, and we headed to the Hermitage from its opening at 10 am 'til about 1:45pm. I saw quite a few things that I'd never seen before (Egyptian sarcophagi, early Islamic art), and revisited some of my old favorites (giant golden peacock clock, halls of French art). I texted Luka but we didn't see him at all inside--however, the Peruvians I sat next to on the airplane to SPB found ME! The friendlier one tapped me on the shoulder, pulled me in for a hug, and asked how my trip was. We exchanged pleasantries and moved on, but I thought it was pretty cool to randomly run into people in Russia.
We ate at a great little pie shop, definitely a local joint, and then I left to find Masha. It was so good to see her! She looks great, dyed her hair darker and is smiling all the time. We talked about lots of things, both of us have had exciting years--me with boxing and scuba (Jaclyn, you do such frightening things!), and working in the camps here, and her finishing school and getting married. I didn't know it until tonight (probably she explained to me before but I didn't understand) but she and Vova met while working at a Russian children's camp! What are the chances... we walked towards the Lavra, all the way off the map, and even saw where her old school was (I don't want to look at it anymore! I graduated, I don't have to come back!). We reminisced lots, and went to see the beach festival outside of Peter & Paul Fortress. Judging will be tomorrow, so I think I'll go back after I visit the lavra and a banya ... in just a few hours. When we exited the metro, I tried so hard to get her to speak English--she never does and I really wanted to hear her practice. I mean, she reads Danielle Steele novels in English, so her grammar must be pretty good. But she was so afraid of making mistakes she completely clammed up. I felt almost like I was watching myself last year--nowadays I don't really care if I make mistakes anymore--the more confident you are, the better you speak. But when you don't feel comfortable in a language, so much of you is lost--your sense of humor, the complexity of your thoughts, your spontaneous feelings and snap connections to culture, that you inevitably seem like a 2-dimensional person (I'm sure this contributes to why we view foreigners as "other" all the time). We wandered around some more, then met Susan and some of her friends for dinner. What a fun group of people! A Katya, a Yulia, and twins: Masha and Dasha. We ate at a traditional Russian place and shared all sorts of stories, mostly camp ones. Their English was all very good, and again, I don't think Masha had a great time because she was very shy about speaking English. Her voice changes too! I think everyone's voice does, between Russian and any other language. Russian invariably makes your voice drop.
Wandering around with a paket makes me feel more Russian--I was even told that I'd picked up a Russian "bad habit." Oh well, I'll take that. Tomorrow both Marina and Susan talked about going to Petergof, but I don't really want to kill a whole day there. Like I said, I plan on chilling at the Nevsky Lavra, then visiting a banya and the beach sculpture contest. Hopefully I'll see Masha again (I've got to think of something great for a wedding present, I really miss just being able to talk to her whenever like we do, about films and literature and life and dreams and, really, it's amazing what you can end up communicating even when you don't speak the same language), and then I think I'll try to see both Marina and her friends and Susan and her friends again. Sushi for dinner, drinks somewhere else.
Oh, before I forget! Fidel is closed, and Dacha, because of their building undergoing remont--except they're gone for good. Too bad, really--they're the only 2 bars I might have gone to alone, since I know them and they're so close (not to mention always filled with Americans). Then again, I'm content having wine with dinner and heading home to a shower, book, and bed.
I'm really such a homebody, all this night life is completely wasted on me.
Home in just a few days! It's getting to be time--you know how when it's time to go, you start to get ready for it? Well, I've been preparing for awhile, sorting all my dirty clothes into "junk" and "keep" piles, relishing the thought of chucking all my dirty tapochki and toiletries, hoping I can squeeze everything into carry-on (but considering how many souvenirs I have, between all my new sweatshirts and jackets and notebooks and bric-a-brac and CDs, I doubt that'll happen).
Tuesday, July 15, 2008
July 15th, 2008 || Back at CafeMax
It's amazing what's changed here--and what hasn't.
Il Patio and the ArbatParfumerie on Nevsky have closed; but a BoscoSport has opened up. The road to the Technologicheskii Instityt and one side of Anichkov Most are under construction--and the Hotel across from CafeMax (itself in remont) is still under construction from last year. Signing on to AIM when trying to post is still a bad idea, even though I can't help myelf from talking to friends real time.
I have converted to preferring the Moscow metro, that's a new change. It's just so much bigger and prettier and, in a way, makes more sense. I like walking St. Petersburg, and that's pretty much all I've done today, stopping in at the shops I want to stop in at and meandering here and there--which also means I didn't actually make it to Yusopov Palace before it closed. Tomorrow I'm seeing Masha, and I might go to the Hermitage with Susan and maybe even Luka's group in the morning, we'll see. Then, hopefully I can convince Masha to walk down the the Lavra with me--I'm not really sure if monasteries and famous cemeteries are her thing, but there's no harm in trying. I'm really surprised she's free tomorrow--what with her wedding being this Saturday, I figured she'd be going crazy all the time until then.
I can't remember what I said, but my apartment situation is great. I'm right behind Apraskin Dvor, and accidentally wandered to Samovar (the restaurant we would eat lunch at every day last year) while exploring. We're 5 minutes from Sennaya Ploshchad, 10 from Gostiniy Dvor, and maybe 15 from Kazanskii Sobor, Gerzen. Last night it rained prett hard--I'm used to it raining in Piter every day, or even every hour, but nothing heavy or lasting longer than 20 minutes. I sat in Zoom Cafe (a great little place that I'll probably go back to tonight to write in) for over an hour, waiting for it to clear up--then gave up and started walking in the rain anyway, since it was almost 11. The lightning was intense, cracking the sky in half right over the Admiralty spire,and the water in all the canals was constatntly being beaten, looking for all the world like crumpled aluminum. For dinner, since the kitchen was closed, I had apple pie and ice cream--a dead giveaway to my server that I was an American. It was alllllllllmost as good as Nana's--but for this side of the planet, that made it taste pretty fantastic.
Today I had breakfast with Natalya and the American couple staying with us. It was chilly, so I wore my new UGeorgia hoodie to breakfast, and the lady looks up and goes, "I went to Georgia for grad school!" What are the chances? They ate pretty sparsely, probably because they were nervous--today is their day in court. They're adopting a little boy from a Petersburg orphanage, and after finding that out, again we had plenty to talk about. I remember being amazed by all of the things they're now experiencing--the gift giving, the bureaucracy, the initial fear of the strange city, being amused at the way the caretakers call the kids "inmates..." I felt myself getting nervous and excited for them. Also, being from Boston and very proper they remind me of the smart couple from Idiocracy.
Looking for jeans and doing some souvenir shopping--afraid I'm going to strike out on the teapot this time, but jeans are looking up. I'm going to come home with a completely messed up sense of fashion and probably some bizarre clothes. Also, what's up with these sizes?? Apparently Americans do that different too? I can't figure out if Italian and French sizes are different, or if Russian ones are different from those, or if they use centimeters measurements or what... I could be anywhere from a 32 to a 50, depending on what tag I'm looking at.
Alright, I think I'm going to go gylyat' a little more, and if it's not too late, buy some flowers to take and see Marina Nikolaevna. I wonder if she's got another student this summer...
Il Patio and the ArbatParfumerie on Nevsky have closed; but a BoscoSport has opened up. The road to the Technologicheskii Instityt and one side of Anichkov Most are under construction--and the Hotel across from CafeMax (itself in remont) is still under construction from last year. Signing on to AIM when trying to post is still a bad idea, even though I can't help myelf from talking to friends real time.
I have converted to preferring the Moscow metro, that's a new change. It's just so much bigger and prettier and, in a way, makes more sense. I like walking St. Petersburg, and that's pretty much all I've done today, stopping in at the shops I want to stop in at and meandering here and there--which also means I didn't actually make it to Yusopov Palace before it closed. Tomorrow I'm seeing Masha, and I might go to the Hermitage with Susan and maybe even Luka's group in the morning, we'll see. Then, hopefully I can convince Masha to walk down the the Lavra with me--I'm not really sure if monasteries and famous cemeteries are her thing, but there's no harm in trying. I'm really surprised she's free tomorrow--what with her wedding being this Saturday, I figured she'd be going crazy all the time until then.
I can't remember what I said, but my apartment situation is great. I'm right behind Apraskin Dvor, and accidentally wandered to Samovar (the restaurant we would eat lunch at every day last year) while exploring. We're 5 minutes from Sennaya Ploshchad, 10 from Gostiniy Dvor, and maybe 15 from Kazanskii Sobor, Gerzen. Last night it rained prett hard--I'm used to it raining in Piter every day, or even every hour, but nothing heavy or lasting longer than 20 minutes. I sat in Zoom Cafe (a great little place that I'll probably go back to tonight to write in) for over an hour, waiting for it to clear up--then gave up and started walking in the rain anyway, since it was almost 11. The lightning was intense, cracking the sky in half right over the Admiralty spire,and the water in all the canals was constatntly being beaten, looking for all the world like crumpled aluminum. For dinner, since the kitchen was closed, I had apple pie and ice cream--a dead giveaway to my server that I was an American. It was alllllllllmost as good as Nana's--but for this side of the planet, that made it taste pretty fantastic.
Today I had breakfast with Natalya and the American couple staying with us. It was chilly, so I wore my new UGeorgia hoodie to breakfast, and the lady looks up and goes, "I went to Georgia for grad school!" What are the chances? They ate pretty sparsely, probably because they were nervous--today is their day in court. They're adopting a little boy from a Petersburg orphanage, and after finding that out, again we had plenty to talk about. I remember being amazed by all of the things they're now experiencing--the gift giving, the bureaucracy, the initial fear of the strange city, being amused at the way the caretakers call the kids "inmates..." I felt myself getting nervous and excited for them. Also, being from Boston and very proper they remind me of the smart couple from Idiocracy.
Looking for jeans and doing some souvenir shopping--afraid I'm going to strike out on the teapot this time, but jeans are looking up. I'm going to come home with a completely messed up sense of fashion and probably some bizarre clothes. Also, what's up with these sizes?? Apparently Americans do that different too? I can't figure out if Italian and French sizes are different, or if Russian ones are different from those, or if they use centimeters measurements or what... I could be anywhere from a 32 to a 50, depending on what tag I'm looking at.
Alright, I think I'm going to go gylyat' a little more, and if it's not too late, buy some flowers to take and see Marina Nikolaevna. I wonder if she's got another student this summer...
Monday, July 14, 2008
July 14, 2008 || First Day Back in Peter
Absolute bullocks. I had a super long post for today and apparently the website decides to be ultra lame and not auto save AT ALL while I'm writing? Bah.
Here's the short:
Last day at camp, last night at Olya's... gonna miss her and owe her so much.
CCUSA was great at taking us around Moscow--we did so much and the weather was great, I really actually started to like the fickle beast.
--> Tretyakov, Izmailovskii Rynok, Georgian food, Chris's apartment/wanting to BE Chris when I graduate, banya-searching, almost calling every friend at home at 4 am EST from CCUSA's phones 'cause I COULD, playground playing, staying up way too late every night, dyrak with friends, morning tour of VDNX, taking pictures with Thai tourists...
CCUSA rocked at getting us to our airports--Max sat and had coffee with me while waiting for my checkin to open, then went to double-check on Kirby. CCUSA pretty much rocks. Especially Xenia and Valery. My plane got delayed 5 hours. Made friends with some Russians, a Swede, an Italian tour guide (might be tagging along with his group to go see the Hermitage, maybe Gatchina or Petergof or something, as well as finding non-Il Patio Italian food). Finally arrived, love my 'mini-hotel.'
Plans: Up in the air, whatever I want. On my schedule: BIG WANTS Valaam, Nevsky Lavra, jazz boat cruise MUST SEE Marina Nikolaevna, Marina from Moscow, Susan, Masha. Anything else that comes my way, I'm game. And I'll be taking serious notes so I can actually send some kick ass info to the Rough Guide guys this time.
Missing the CCUSA kids (probably still in the air right now) terribly. It's one thing to think you won't see your camp kids ever again, but some of these guys became like best friends.
Need: SLEEP. Running on an average of 1.5 hours a night for the past few days. Poshla!
Here's the short:
Last day at camp, last night at Olya's... gonna miss her and owe her so much.
CCUSA was great at taking us around Moscow--we did so much and the weather was great, I really actually started to like the fickle beast.
--> Tretyakov, Izmailovskii Rynok, Georgian food, Chris's apartment/wanting to BE Chris when I graduate, banya-searching, almost calling every friend at home at 4 am EST from CCUSA's phones 'cause I COULD, playground playing, staying up way too late every night, dyrak with friends, morning tour of VDNX, taking pictures with Thai tourists...
CCUSA rocked at getting us to our airports--Max sat and had coffee with me while waiting for my checkin to open, then went to double-check on Kirby. CCUSA pretty much rocks. Especially Xenia and Valery. My plane got delayed 5 hours. Made friends with some Russians, a Swede, an Italian tour guide (might be tagging along with his group to go see the Hermitage, maybe Gatchina or Petergof or something, as well as finding non-Il Patio Italian food). Finally arrived, love my 'mini-hotel.'
Plans: Up in the air, whatever I want. On my schedule: BIG WANTS Valaam, Nevsky Lavra, jazz boat cruise MUST SEE Marina Nikolaevna, Marina from Moscow, Susan, Masha. Anything else that comes my way, I'm game. And I'll be taking serious notes so I can actually send some kick ass info to the Rough Guide guys this time.
Missing the CCUSA kids (probably still in the air right now) terribly. It's one thing to think you won't see your camp kids ever again, but some of these guys became like best friends.
Need: SLEEP. Running on an average of 1.5 hours a night for the past few days. Poshla!
Thursday, July 10, 2008
July 10, 2008 || Hedgehog Day, Second Smena
We're back at camp, and man, it feels different... all of our kids are gone (only 4 returned out of the whooooole bunch for this smena), a lot of the counselors are different, the instructors are different, and we leave on Friday.
It's been tough--we feel even more like we don't have a role here, and that we're only punching the clock until we leave. It's not easy to get involved when 1) you know you're leaving in less than a few days and 2) you don't want to get super close to the kids, since you know how much it might hurt when you leave them (and anyways, no matter how hard you try, chances are you won't be able to get that close to them in the end). I feel like we've been spending much more time with the staff and counselors, and even in the computer room--I've been tying up some lose ends on my trip to St. Petersburg instead of posting on here (then again, there's not that much to post).
The first day was just move-in. This time we're living in Carolina, on the highest floor, which is a bit like the attic. There's 6 of us there--me, Desiree, Olga our helper, Lera, Nastya (a new Nastya), and Vika. Vika has become probably our closest friend up there; she's a photographer and not a counselor this time around, so we look through her pictures and spend more free time with her.
The second day we performed our opening show (last time, for Japan we did a fan dance and tea ceremony). This time, I'm a mime and Desiree's a can-can dancer. The shows were kind of slapdash, and both Desiree and I aren't as good this time around, since no one's taking the time to translate everything into English for us (new dance leader, new theater instructor). Oh well. The make-up alone is worth seeing the pictures. Also, Lera made me wear a pair of her black pants instead of Olga's and my god, I didn't know I could even walk in pants that tight. Sally forth, carry on, all that rot. Yesterday was linyayka too, so I went to that and then got invited to watch Natasha's group practice their dance and go to their svechka, and after I stayed in Natasha's room and just talked with her and red Nadya, Katya, Leilya, and whoever else wandered in. When Desiree came we started Skip-Bo (Alyona, a girl who we had let borrow it, got it taken away from her for not sleeping), but planyorka got in the way and we went to bed.
Today was the most eventful day so far, and the real reason I'm on writing.
In the middle of the night, I heard what sounded like someone unpacking right next to my bed. I sat up and looked around--there rummaging through the clothes I had left on top of my duffel bag was a big dark shape, hunched low like a rat. I must have screamed a little, 'cause it ran off along the wall, snuffling all the way, and crawled into a long box lying a ways away. In there, it kept crawling around and rubbing its claws and body on the cardboard, so Desiree woke up, and I told her there was an animal in the room. She didn't quite understand, thought he was in the pipes, but when I finally got her to understand, we both jumped up and started with the "What do we dos?!" We ran all the way downstairs, and even outside, to see if anyone was up--I hadn't bothered to look at my watch, turns out it was around 5 am. When we got back upstairs, Lera heard the animal and looked at us--I tried to tell her there was an animal in the room, but she just rolled back over and went to bed after giving us a glare. Vika woke up too, and we explained to her what had happened. She understood and while we were moving our clothes off the floor she picked up her shoes too, but after we frantically tried to block the box with something heavy, she decided there was nothing we could do 'till morning and we should try to get back to sleep. We did try... well, I finished my book first, and then I lay coiled around my camera, afraid now that if the animal left during the night no one would believe me--I was the only one who had seen it. Everytime it moved, which was often, I would snap up and get ready for a picture, until it calmed down and seemed to go to sleep. I had some fitful dreams--one where it was the rat from "The Great Mouse Detective" and one where it was a tiger cub crawled into our room.
When it was time for lunch, we could still here it, but we went to breakfast. I really don't have all the words for explaining how a mouse or rat or something is in my room (but I do know the words for shooting range, sword-fighting, joint and belay... it's interesting how our vocabularies evolve), but between 2 Russians who could speak English, one American who can speak Russian, one Russian who understands gestures well, and one American who makes gestures well, we got the general idea across--and the verdict was, wait for Sveta or Taras to wake up and tell them.
We reluctantly returned to our room and pulled our feet up from the floor on our beds to wait, me writing a letter, Desiree reading her book. Katya brought breakfast for Olga, and excitedly our room related to her the story of our mouse/rat and how food might be a bad idea. She started laughing and asked where the rat was. We pointed to the box and she walked right over to it and looked inside. In Russian, she told us who she had caught a hedgehog yesterday and then decided to play a joke on us by letting it into our room--she shook the box until the little guy fell out, and sure enough, a scared little hedgehog started running across our floor.
Thank GOD is all I've got to say--for some reason, I'm much more okay with having a hedgehog relaxing on yesterday's jeans than a rat. He really was quite cute, too--of course we had to chase him around the room and catch him again.
Annnnd the whole shtab just started laughing as I told Katya all about how Desiree and I ran outside and how I slept with my camera all night.
Pretty damn good pratical joke, if you ask me (now that I've had a 2-hour nap and put away all my clothes).
As for the rest of today... our performance again, maybe attending a few Karolina lessons or Robin Hood lessons, and then going to bed, starting to pack up. We leave tomorrow evening (so late that we probably won't be able to see Marina do her fire show performance, as we'd been hoping), and probably after the disco has already begun--but we didn't bring any nice clothes whatsoever, so chances are Desiree and I won't be going to disco, one more night at Olga's house--hopefully with more laundry being done--and then back to the hotel on Saturday. Our plans with the group seem to be a river cruise (been there, done that) and then souvenir shopping at Izmailovsky. Marina and Anya told us about a free open-air concert at VDNX park, right near our hotel, so we're going to try to get the group to go to that Saturday night, and then who knows what we'll do on Sunday while they're river-cruising.
Then, well, off to St. Petersburg--I can't wait! Marina even said she'll try to get tickets and meet me up there with her friend (another Marina) so it could end up being even more fun than I originally thought, though I plan on logging some serious hours with a big cup of tea and my journal in some park or cafe somewhere.
It's been tough--we feel even more like we don't have a role here, and that we're only punching the clock until we leave. It's not easy to get involved when 1) you know you're leaving in less than a few days and 2) you don't want to get super close to the kids, since you know how much it might hurt when you leave them (and anyways, no matter how hard you try, chances are you won't be able to get that close to them in the end). I feel like we've been spending much more time with the staff and counselors, and even in the computer room--I've been tying up some lose ends on my trip to St. Petersburg instead of posting on here (then again, there's not that much to post).
The first day was just move-in. This time we're living in Carolina, on the highest floor, which is a bit like the attic. There's 6 of us there--me, Desiree, Olga our helper, Lera, Nastya (a new Nastya), and Vika. Vika has become probably our closest friend up there; she's a photographer and not a counselor this time around, so we look through her pictures and spend more free time with her.
The second day we performed our opening show (last time, for Japan we did a fan dance and tea ceremony). This time, I'm a mime and Desiree's a can-can dancer. The shows were kind of slapdash, and both Desiree and I aren't as good this time around, since no one's taking the time to translate everything into English for us (new dance leader, new theater instructor). Oh well. The make-up alone is worth seeing the pictures. Also, Lera made me wear a pair of her black pants instead of Olga's and my god, I didn't know I could even walk in pants that tight. Sally forth, carry on, all that rot. Yesterday was linyayka too, so I went to that and then got invited to watch Natasha's group practice their dance and go to their svechka, and after I stayed in Natasha's room and just talked with her and red Nadya, Katya, Leilya, and whoever else wandered in. When Desiree came we started Skip-Bo (Alyona, a girl who we had let borrow it, got it taken away from her for not sleeping), but planyorka got in the way and we went to bed.
Today was the most eventful day so far, and the real reason I'm on writing.
In the middle of the night, I heard what sounded like someone unpacking right next to my bed. I sat up and looked around--there rummaging through the clothes I had left on top of my duffel bag was a big dark shape, hunched low like a rat. I must have screamed a little, 'cause it ran off along the wall, snuffling all the way, and crawled into a long box lying a ways away. In there, it kept crawling around and rubbing its claws and body on the cardboard, so Desiree woke up, and I told her there was an animal in the room. She didn't quite understand, thought he was in the pipes, but when I finally got her to understand, we both jumped up and started with the "What do we dos?!" We ran all the way downstairs, and even outside, to see if anyone was up--I hadn't bothered to look at my watch, turns out it was around 5 am. When we got back upstairs, Lera heard the animal and looked at us--I tried to tell her there was an animal in the room, but she just rolled back over and went to bed after giving us a glare. Vika woke up too, and we explained to her what had happened. She understood and while we were moving our clothes off the floor she picked up her shoes too, but after we frantically tried to block the box with something heavy, she decided there was nothing we could do 'till morning and we should try to get back to sleep. We did try... well, I finished my book first, and then I lay coiled around my camera, afraid now that if the animal left during the night no one would believe me--I was the only one who had seen it. Everytime it moved, which was often, I would snap up and get ready for a picture, until it calmed down and seemed to go to sleep. I had some fitful dreams--one where it was the rat from "The Great Mouse Detective" and one where it was a tiger cub crawled into our room.
When it was time for lunch, we could still here it, but we went to breakfast. I really don't have all the words for explaining how a mouse or rat or something is in my room (but I do know the words for shooting range, sword-fighting, joint and belay... it's interesting how our vocabularies evolve), but between 2 Russians who could speak English, one American who can speak Russian, one Russian who understands gestures well, and one American who makes gestures well, we got the general idea across--and the verdict was, wait for Sveta or Taras to wake up and tell them.
We reluctantly returned to our room and pulled our feet up from the floor on our beds to wait, me writing a letter, Desiree reading her book. Katya brought breakfast for Olga, and excitedly our room related to her the story of our mouse/rat and how food might be a bad idea. She started laughing and asked where the rat was. We pointed to the box and she walked right over to it and looked inside. In Russian, she told us who she had caught a hedgehog yesterday and then decided to play a joke on us by letting it into our room--she shook the box until the little guy fell out, and sure enough, a scared little hedgehog started running across our floor.
Thank GOD is all I've got to say--for some reason, I'm much more okay with having a hedgehog relaxing on yesterday's jeans than a rat. He really was quite cute, too--of course we had to chase him around the room and catch him again.
Annnnd the whole shtab just started laughing as I told Katya all about how Desiree and I ran outside and how I slept with my camera all night.
Pretty damn good pratical joke, if you ask me (now that I've had a 2-hour nap and put away all my clothes).
As for the rest of today... our performance again, maybe attending a few Karolina lessons or Robin Hood lessons, and then going to bed, starting to pack up. We leave tomorrow evening (so late that we probably won't be able to see Marina do her fire show performance, as we'd been hoping), and probably after the disco has already begun--but we didn't bring any nice clothes whatsoever, so chances are Desiree and I won't be going to disco, one more night at Olga's house--hopefully with more laundry being done--and then back to the hotel on Saturday. Our plans with the group seem to be a river cruise (been there, done that) and then souvenir shopping at Izmailovsky. Marina and Anya told us about a free open-air concert at VDNX park, right near our hotel, so we're going to try to get the group to go to that Saturday night, and then who knows what we'll do on Sunday while they're river-cruising.
Then, well, off to St. Petersburg--I can't wait! Marina even said she'll try to get tickets and meet me up there with her friend (another Marina) so it could end up being even more fun than I originally thought, though I plan on logging some serious hours with a big cup of tea and my journal in some park or cafe somewhere.
Tuesday, July 8, 2008
July 5th, 2008 Attempt the First || Saying Goodbye to Our Kids
This is what I saved the first time I was writing, while the buses full of kids were idling at the gates. I actually can't remember what was there and again have almost no time here (have to go practice miming) so I'll just paste and peace:
Well, today's the last day of camp.
Desiree and I have ended up in the staff headquarters, and just now I can hear the buses finally pulling away. It was getting a bit too painful.. the last 45 minutes we spent walking up and down the line of buses, helping small children lift their bags into the hold, saying Goodbyes in English, Russian, and Japanese, taking pictures, giving hugs, handing out our e-mail addresses, talking a bit where we could... Heck, I even signed some boy's arm (God help me, I will never be able to remember everyone's name).
I never like saying goodbye, but it's ten times harder when you know almost beyond a doubt that you're never going to see the person again. And even e-mail--what a fragile thread connecting two people across continents, oceans, cultures. I'll certainly never forget their faces or my memories, but I wish I could keep them constant in my life.
I'm at a bit of a loss as to what to write. I feel very full, but also strangely empty. My emotions have reached a stalemate with one another--happy to have met, sad to be leaving.
What did I write on my memory square in grade school? "Don't cry because it's over; smile because it happened." I'm going to try to do that. And instead of listening to my warbling ramblings, I'll tell you what we did last night.
In full, we prepared all day for our evening performance. I can't tell you how many times I sang "Old McDonald" and "My Country 'Tis of Thee." Around 5:30 everyone gathered in the hall and we gave out awards to the groups who had the best performances, the best dance, and so on. Some groups performed new skits--our group, Pervui Otryad, Dobrii Zhyk, reenacted our poxod on stage while Tolya played his guitar--right down to Natasha holding her wet jeans over the fire (she had fallen in the shallow water climbing out of a canoe). "The Beatles"--that is, Gleb, Pasha, and two other boys from the Tretii Otryad--performed "Yesterday" in both English and Russian. They dedicated it to their counselors and us, who were "very kind and... and... pretty!" That's a pretty darn sad song to begin with, and after that, Desi and I almost started crying. After the Beatles, Sveta announced that it was a big holiday in America, and the entire hall congratulated us, and we launched into "Old McDomald." We had ducks, pigs, goats, cats, and a breakdancing farmer. Next, "My Country 'Tis of Thee" with Vika, Alyona, and Anton, and then the American national anthem. They brought a big American flag on stage, and then when we sang "Rossiya--Maya Zvezda" and the national anthem it was joined by a Russian flag. Our "Lanterns of Friendship" song made another appearance and we all peaced to get ready for the campfire.
Out at the big meeting spot by the shooting range, we all sat together and sang a few songs, then eagerly awaited the arrival of Robin Hood. Misha was in his element--I swear, he's never slouched in his life and is made for the "I'm gazing out over you from a platitude of legendary righteousness" role. The kids had assembled a puzzle of a castle, and presented him with the gift of a new "home." Misha declined, saying his home was in the woods, but he would visit his friends often--and then! Trumpet fanfare, and Richard the Lionheart had returned, bringing with him his friends from war. In celebration, Misha took a flaming arrow and lit our giant bonfire. More singing, dancing, etc.
Then came my favorite part of the night--everyone was given a string necklace, and at the bottom of it was tied a bundle of yarn, loosely so you could pull out little threads of it. Each group had a different color. When it was time, you went around and found people who were special and important to you, and tied a little piece of your yarn on their necklace. While doing so, of course (in true Russian fashion), you wished them good things and told them what you thought of them. Luck, happiness, friendship, and health were the most common; I thought it was funny to get wishes for "feminine happiness--like mama, babies!" and really liked the "I wish... that I will see you again"s. By the end, everyone had a multi-colored necklace and high self-esteem,
.....and it was a really wonderful beautiful tradition. Maybe more on that later. Bye!
Well, today's the last day of camp.
Desiree and I have ended up in the staff headquarters, and just now I can hear the buses finally pulling away. It was getting a bit too painful.. the last 45 minutes we spent walking up and down the line of buses, helping small children lift their bags into the hold, saying Goodbyes in English, Russian, and Japanese, taking pictures, giving hugs, handing out our e-mail addresses, talking a bit where we could... Heck, I even signed some boy's arm (God help me, I will never be able to remember everyone's name).
I never like saying goodbye, but it's ten times harder when you know almost beyond a doubt that you're never going to see the person again. And even e-mail--what a fragile thread connecting two people across continents, oceans, cultures. I'll certainly never forget their faces or my memories, but I wish I could keep them constant in my life.
I'm at a bit of a loss as to what to write. I feel very full, but also strangely empty. My emotions have reached a stalemate with one another--happy to have met, sad to be leaving.
What did I write on my memory square in grade school? "Don't cry because it's over; smile because it happened." I'm going to try to do that. And instead of listening to my warbling ramblings, I'll tell you what we did last night.
In full, we prepared all day for our evening performance. I can't tell you how many times I sang "Old McDonald" and "My Country 'Tis of Thee." Around 5:30 everyone gathered in the hall and we gave out awards to the groups who had the best performances, the best dance, and so on. Some groups performed new skits--our group, Pervui Otryad, Dobrii Zhyk, reenacted our poxod on stage while Tolya played his guitar--right down to Natasha holding her wet jeans over the fire (she had fallen in the shallow water climbing out of a canoe). "The Beatles"--that is, Gleb, Pasha, and two other boys from the Tretii Otryad--performed "Yesterday" in both English and Russian. They dedicated it to their counselors and us, who were "very kind and... and... pretty!" That's a pretty darn sad song to begin with, and after that, Desi and I almost started crying. After the Beatles, Sveta announced that it was a big holiday in America, and the entire hall congratulated us, and we launched into "Old McDomald." We had ducks, pigs, goats, cats, and a breakdancing farmer. Next, "My Country 'Tis of Thee" with Vika, Alyona, and Anton, and then the American national anthem. They brought a big American flag on stage, and then when we sang "Rossiya--Maya Zvezda" and the national anthem it was joined by a Russian flag. Our "Lanterns of Friendship" song made another appearance and we all peaced to get ready for the campfire.
Out at the big meeting spot by the shooting range, we all sat together and sang a few songs, then eagerly awaited the arrival of Robin Hood. Misha was in his element--I swear, he's never slouched in his life and is made for the "I'm gazing out over you from a platitude of legendary righteousness" role. The kids had assembled a puzzle of a castle, and presented him with the gift of a new "home." Misha declined, saying his home was in the woods, but he would visit his friends often--and then! Trumpet fanfare, and Richard the Lionheart had returned, bringing with him his friends from war. In celebration, Misha took a flaming arrow and lit our giant bonfire. More singing, dancing, etc.
Then came my favorite part of the night--everyone was given a string necklace, and at the bottom of it was tied a bundle of yarn, loosely so you could pull out little threads of it. Each group had a different color. When it was time, you went around and found people who were special and important to you, and tied a little piece of your yarn on their necklace. While doing so, of course (in true Russian fashion), you wished them good things and told them what you thought of them. Luck, happiness, friendship, and health were the most common; I thought it was funny to get wishes for "feminine happiness--like mama, babies!" and really liked the "I wish... that I will see you again"s. By the end, everyone had a multi-colored necklace and high self-esteem,
.....and it was a really wonderful beautiful tradition. Maybe more on that later. Bye!
Monday, July 7, 2008
July 7, 2008 || Smena Break; Shopping
Just a quick note:
Our first night here was very relaxing; we slept and unpacked, and in the evening Lera, Olga, Desi and I split a bottle of red and some appetizers (some awesome cheeses and then, of course, black bread with cucumber) while watching Monsters, Inc. Kinda funny how much gets lost in translation--we watched the movie in English, and Lera and Olga kept occasionally asking questions like "What does 'Nuts!' mean? How about 'Give me a break?'" So many itty bitty phrases that never make it into a textbook... Anyway, in my opnion it was an absolutely perfect night (then again, I'm pretty easily contented).
Yesterday we went shopping with Lera and Olga (helper Olga from camp). Our quest was to find a pair of sweet Russian jeans; the norm here have gliter, jewels, huge embroidered designs, words all up and down the legs, etc. and we wanted a pair. We walkekd through all 3 floors of Passage (the underground mall outside of Red Square) and then we hit up another mall that was, no joke, 8 floors (counting floor 0, which was mainly a grocery store). We were beat by the time we finished, and Desiree walked away with a pair of purple pants instead of jeans. I got nothing--the only pairs I really liked were both upward of $80, and I just can't stomach the thought of paying that much, even for Moscow jeans (I know, I know, Moscow's uber expensive--and that's half of it; the Italian boutiques, Motivi and Oggi, that I would stop in all the time on Nevsky in Petersburg were just not as nice in Moscow).
That night we met up with Marina and went to an English-language movie theater (English!!!) at the Renaissance Hotel near metro Prospekt Mira. It was so cool just getting there--everyone in line was speaking English, the ticket guy harassed this one man about his Yankees hat, it was almost like home!
Okay, getting called to breakfast, said this would be fast!
Before I leave--we saw Most Wanted or whatever with Angelina Jolie, it had some cool scenes but overall it was a pretty weak movie.
Our first night here was very relaxing; we slept and unpacked, and in the evening Lera, Olga, Desi and I split a bottle of red and some appetizers (some awesome cheeses and then, of course, black bread with cucumber) while watching Monsters, Inc. Kinda funny how much gets lost in translation--we watched the movie in English, and Lera and Olga kept occasionally asking questions like "What does 'Nuts!' mean? How about 'Give me a break?'" So many itty bitty phrases that never make it into a textbook... Anyway, in my opnion it was an absolutely perfect night (then again, I'm pretty easily contented).
Yesterday we went shopping with Lera and Olga (helper Olga from camp). Our quest was to find a pair of sweet Russian jeans; the norm here have gliter, jewels, huge embroidered designs, words all up and down the legs, etc. and we wanted a pair. We walkekd through all 3 floors of Passage (the underground mall outside of Red Square) and then we hit up another mall that was, no joke, 8 floors (counting floor 0, which was mainly a grocery store). We were beat by the time we finished, and Desiree walked away with a pair of purple pants instead of jeans. I got nothing--the only pairs I really liked were both upward of $80, and I just can't stomach the thought of paying that much, even for Moscow jeans (I know, I know, Moscow's uber expensive--and that's half of it; the Italian boutiques, Motivi and Oggi, that I would stop in all the time on Nevsky in Petersburg were just not as nice in Moscow).
That night we met up with Marina and went to an English-language movie theater (English!!!) at the Renaissance Hotel near metro Prospekt Mira. It was so cool just getting there--everyone in line was speaking English, the ticket guy harassed this one man about his Yankees hat, it was almost like home!
Okay, getting called to breakfast, said this would be fast!
Before I leave--we saw Most Wanted or whatever with Angelina Jolie, it had some cool scenes but overall it was a pretty weak movie.
Saturday, July 5, 2008
July 5th, 2008 (Attempt the 2nd) || Camp-Out!
Soooo after the kids started loading into the buses this morning, Desi and I went up to the Shtab and chilled with Misha (the kompioterchik/Hard-ass) and decided to spend some quality time online. Misha left after about 10 minutes and bop! like magic the internet went out. I saved what I wrote earlier at camp, so I'll post that sometime later--that was mostly about the campfire last night and saying goodbye this morning (tough stuff to think about right now, so I don't really want to revisit it--the whole "I'M NEVER GOING TO SEE YOU AGAIN" thought is beaming bright and loud in the marquee lights of my mind, and if I focus on it there's no way I'll get to sleep happy).
So, instead, I'm going to go through my pictures on my camera from around the time of poxod (campout) and flesh out my telegram-style post from before.
Yes so, there was poxod, and on poxod there are a whole new group of people in charge, people who just live down at the campsite. After we got settled, we were invited to "go guesting" at these peoples' tent (for lack of an apartment) and met the whole crew.
There was "Bol" or Gena, an old salty-sailor-esque man with a gravely voice and squinty eyes. What killed me was his hat, bedazzled with a skull and crossbones. And I really do mean Bedazzled, capital B, with rhinestones and glitter.
Igor, our tentmate, was a very kind and helpful old gent who also spent most of his time in a sailor's striped shirt.
Lena and Anya, helpful guides and the daughter of Bol on vacation, respectively.
"Hedgehog" and "Sparkman," two EMT trainees who were only there in case of an emergency and stayed as far away from the kids as possible.
Sasha, the head of an engineering factory out in Moscow who was also "resting" in the woods.
A guy who's name I forget who always went around in old German fatigues and seemed to enjoy mystery novels.
And my favorite, "Pablo the Pirate," or Pasha--he hardly smiled, and went around in a pirate's tricorner and life jacket all the time. Really, no joke.
Anyway, at their tent, which was more of a lean-to with two tarp walls (one of which even had a window--prompted discussions of "The Bronze Horseman's" Window to Europe and Animal Planet, don't ask don't tell) we were treated to glintwine (read: mmmmmmmmmmmm why is it only in Russia that I can find this drink?), and cucumbers, bread, and some meat (all things that had to be heated were stuck in the fire), and later what Sasha called "Russian Absinthe." I really have no idea what they put in it, but when Sasha put this little thermometer doodad in, he proclaimed it to be over 70 proof. We could hardly handle even one toast of that stuff, so we ended the night with tea and talking Russian literature around the main campfire (Bol lamenting how youngsters nowadays wouldn't even know of Mayakovsky).
The next day we played a lot of Skip-Bo and sat out the rain until breakfast arrived. Thank goodness they brought us our meals from the dining hall back at camp-camp; I don't think there's any way we could've all fed ourselves. We went canoeing for a little bit and then, being cold, played more Skip-Bo and Pioneerball, all a bit lethargically as no one really wanted to drop the ball or slip in the mud. Desiree and I supplemented ourselves liberally with peanut butter (my jar I threw in the trash last night; the kids in the lounge, Desiree and I had a small moment of silence for it before going back to our cards). We played some camp games, mostly clapping and word games like charades (which is a bit harder in Russian--I think the only one I got first was "Plankton" from Spongebob Squarepants--fancy that, the same in both languages, and I don't even really like Spongebob). One Russian one we learned--well, I forget the name of it, but we all stood in a circle close to one another, and the first person turned to the person on their right and did a funny action to them. This got repeated all around the circle, neighbor to neighbor, until someone laughed--then they became the new leader. Fun times there, regardless of the rain.
The car ride home was as equally dangerous as any I've taken with Dmitri, and instead of 6 people in back we had 10. Sardines came to mind.
That night was... a special night of some sort, I forget. But I have pictures from two of my favorite performances--one involved a the theme from Titanic and "Rose and Jack--60 years later," which was pretty darn cute. After, we called the boy (Kirill, who is in "my Misha's" group--Desiree and I have a hard time distinguishing all the Mishas; there's Misha Hard-Ass, who works on computers; Our Misha, who is in the 1st Group of Robin Hood and often translates for us; My Misha, who's the one his friends would shout "Jaclyn! He is love you!" every time I came near; and Robin Hood, Misha the teacher of archery) "Jack" everywhere we saw him--even when he fought in the fencing tournament, he had a pair of fans shouting "Go Jack! Jack, Jack!" all through. The second great performance was "Yellow Submarine" by the Beatles. The Beatles also all come from my Misha's group, the 3rd Group Robin Hood, and Gleb and Pasha we got to know rather well. They did a really good job, and Desi and I rocked out to their slightly-accented version of the song. They sang a version in Russian too! It was our favorite of the night.
The next day Nelly (one of the directors of Carolina) invited us to go on an excursion with some of her girls to a Russian monastery. It was absolutely gorgeous--I've been in Russian monasteries before, but this one was probably my favorite. It was beautiful in every classic way, and it was also completely unique--the first small chapel we went into was set deep in the ground, and tiny narrow staircases led to it (33 steps, one for each year of the life of Christ). We toured the tall fortress walls that surrounded the monastery, went for a ride in a horse-drawn carriage around the land outside its gates, and even drank from a sacred spring kept on its grounds. Most of it was being rebuilt--the main hall wasn't yet open, but we could peek in through the boarded up windows. If you haven't seen an Eastern Orthodox church before, I can't describe to you the amount of color they cram into every usable surface--it's as if religion is rioting on the walls, right in front of your eyes! But this main hall, whose roof had fallen in years before and only recently been repaired, was eerily bare... the walls were mostly white, washed by wind and rain I imagine, and only splashes here and there of color could you still make out. A wind blew out into our faces, and I realized it was singing through the whole church from the all the other glassless panes, just like the one we were using. I--it's hard to describe, the feeling I had resting my hands on its history; like I was looking into something not shameful, but broken. If the altar had a face, and suddenly turned its eyes up to me, I would have felt embarassed to see something I knew must have once been so beautiful and full of life empty and in need of help.
Anyway, that was a pretty lovely excursion; I find Russian convents, monasteries, etc to be nothing if not relaxing... next pictures... fencing tournament, archery, then the last night... Oh, it's already 1 am here, and I've been exhausted from the two nights past. Now that Olga has internet in her apartment, I hope that I'll be able to write a little more tomorrow. We're waking up early to go shopping (Desiree and I are on a mission: a pair of Russian jeans and for her also, a dress) with Lera and Marina, and then we'll see what else. We'd like to go to the zoo, and maybe out someplace, but I think doing laundry might take precedence... on Tuesday we head back to camp until Saturday, when we meet back up with our CCUSA group (I can't wait to hear how they've been!), and on the 14th I head to St. Petersburg (also can't wait for that). I know we won't get anywhere as near as close with these kids as our old ones (listen to me... our kids), but I'm excited to meet them all the same. And at Karolina, the next country we're doing is going to be France! So bien, I'll be in my element... sorta. =P
So, instead, I'm going to go through my pictures on my camera from around the time of poxod (campout) and flesh out my telegram-style post from before.
Yes so, there was poxod, and on poxod there are a whole new group of people in charge, people who just live down at the campsite. After we got settled, we were invited to "go guesting" at these peoples' tent (for lack of an apartment) and met the whole crew.
There was "Bol" or Gena, an old salty-sailor-esque man with a gravely voice and squinty eyes. What killed me was his hat, bedazzled with a skull and crossbones. And I really do mean Bedazzled, capital B, with rhinestones and glitter.
Igor, our tentmate, was a very kind and helpful old gent who also spent most of his time in a sailor's striped shirt.
Lena and Anya, helpful guides and the daughter of Bol on vacation, respectively.
"Hedgehog" and "Sparkman," two EMT trainees who were only there in case of an emergency and stayed as far away from the kids as possible.
Sasha, the head of an engineering factory out in Moscow who was also "resting" in the woods.
A guy who's name I forget who always went around in old German fatigues and seemed to enjoy mystery novels.
And my favorite, "Pablo the Pirate," or Pasha--he hardly smiled, and went around in a pirate's tricorner and life jacket all the time. Really, no joke.
Anyway, at their tent, which was more of a lean-to with two tarp walls (one of which even had a window--prompted discussions of "The Bronze Horseman's" Window to Europe and Animal Planet, don't ask don't tell) we were treated to glintwine (read: mmmmmmmmmmmm why is it only in Russia that I can find this drink?), and cucumbers, bread, and some meat (all things that had to be heated were stuck in the fire), and later what Sasha called "Russian Absinthe." I really have no idea what they put in it, but when Sasha put this little thermometer doodad in, he proclaimed it to be over 70 proof. We could hardly handle even one toast of that stuff, so we ended the night with tea and talking Russian literature around the main campfire (Bol lamenting how youngsters nowadays wouldn't even know of Mayakovsky).
The next day we played a lot of Skip-Bo and sat out the rain until breakfast arrived. Thank goodness they brought us our meals from the dining hall back at camp-camp; I don't think there's any way we could've all fed ourselves. We went canoeing for a little bit and then, being cold, played more Skip-Bo and Pioneerball, all a bit lethargically as no one really wanted to drop the ball or slip in the mud. Desiree and I supplemented ourselves liberally with peanut butter (my jar I threw in the trash last night; the kids in the lounge, Desiree and I had a small moment of silence for it before going back to our cards). We played some camp games, mostly clapping and word games like charades (which is a bit harder in Russian--I think the only one I got first was "Plankton" from Spongebob Squarepants--fancy that, the same in both languages, and I don't even really like Spongebob). One Russian one we learned--well, I forget the name of it, but we all stood in a circle close to one another, and the first person turned to the person on their right and did a funny action to them. This got repeated all around the circle, neighbor to neighbor, until someone laughed--then they became the new leader. Fun times there, regardless of the rain.
The car ride home was as equally dangerous as any I've taken with Dmitri, and instead of 6 people in back we had 10. Sardines came to mind.
That night was... a special night of some sort, I forget. But I have pictures from two of my favorite performances--one involved a the theme from Titanic and "Rose and Jack--60 years later," which was pretty darn cute. After, we called the boy (Kirill, who is in "my Misha's" group--Desiree and I have a hard time distinguishing all the Mishas; there's Misha Hard-Ass, who works on computers; Our Misha, who is in the 1st Group of Robin Hood and often translates for us; My Misha, who's the one his friends would shout "Jaclyn! He is love you!" every time I came near; and Robin Hood, Misha the teacher of archery) "Jack" everywhere we saw him--even when he fought in the fencing tournament, he had a pair of fans shouting "Go Jack! Jack, Jack!" all through. The second great performance was "Yellow Submarine" by the Beatles. The Beatles also all come from my Misha's group, the 3rd Group Robin Hood, and Gleb and Pasha we got to know rather well. They did a really good job, and Desi and I rocked out to their slightly-accented version of the song. They sang a version in Russian too! It was our favorite of the night.
The next day Nelly (one of the directors of Carolina) invited us to go on an excursion with some of her girls to a Russian monastery. It was absolutely gorgeous--I've been in Russian monasteries before, but this one was probably my favorite. It was beautiful in every classic way, and it was also completely unique--the first small chapel we went into was set deep in the ground, and tiny narrow staircases led to it (33 steps, one for each year of the life of Christ). We toured the tall fortress walls that surrounded the monastery, went for a ride in a horse-drawn carriage around the land outside its gates, and even drank from a sacred spring kept on its grounds. Most of it was being rebuilt--the main hall wasn't yet open, but we could peek in through the boarded up windows. If you haven't seen an Eastern Orthodox church before, I can't describe to you the amount of color they cram into every usable surface--it's as if religion is rioting on the walls, right in front of your eyes! But this main hall, whose roof had fallen in years before and only recently been repaired, was eerily bare... the walls were mostly white, washed by wind and rain I imagine, and only splashes here and there of color could you still make out. A wind blew out into our faces, and I realized it was singing through the whole church from the all the other glassless panes, just like the one we were using. I--it's hard to describe, the feeling I had resting my hands on its history; like I was looking into something not shameful, but broken. If the altar had a face, and suddenly turned its eyes up to me, I would have felt embarassed to see something I knew must have once been so beautiful and full of life empty and in need of help.
Anyway, that was a pretty lovely excursion; I find Russian convents, monasteries, etc to be nothing if not relaxing... next pictures... fencing tournament, archery, then the last night... Oh, it's already 1 am here, and I've been exhausted from the two nights past. Now that Olga has internet in her apartment, I hope that I'll be able to write a little more tomorrow. We're waking up early to go shopping (Desiree and I are on a mission: a pair of Russian jeans and for her also, a dress) with Lera and Marina, and then we'll see what else. We'd like to go to the zoo, and maybe out someplace, but I think doing laundry might take precedence... on Tuesday we head back to camp until Saturday, when we meet back up with our CCUSA group (I can't wait to hear how they've been!), and on the 14th I head to St. Petersburg (also can't wait for that). I know we won't get anywhere as near as close with these kids as our old ones (listen to me... our kids), but I'm excited to meet them all the same. And at Karolina, the next country we're doing is going to be France! So bien, I'll be in my element... sorta. =P
Friday, July 4, 2008
July 4, 2008 || Overview, Last Disco, Poxod, 4th of July Practice
Happy 4th of July everyone!
Okay, Olga told me I only have 5 minutes, so real quick:
We went camping from Saturday 'til Monday, and when we got back the Internet was broken. It just got fixed today.
Here's what happened camping: It rained. We went canoeing. We were cold. We went to the bathroom in an outhouse made of sackcloth. It rained some more. We played volleyball until someone dropped the ball in the mud. Tolya played on the guitar. We were cold. It rained. We taosted bread. We took a walk in the woods. We swatted mosquitoes. We slept in sleeping bags. We weren't cold. We woke up and went out for breakfast. We were cold.
That's the general idea, but I'd like to try camping, real camping, for real sometime--I would've given half a leg for my hoodie and the other half for a sweater.
There was the fencing tournament (Tolya was the winner of the oldest group, and Slava was the winner of the youngest group). It was pretty cool to watch everyone fight. Egor and Ilya fought for show--Egor's pretty good. They both left for a different camp (to be campers), this made us sad because they were patient and fun to talk to.
We tried shooting and archery. Archery was super fun--Misha doesn't know that many words of English, so his commands went along the lines of "Stand! Hands! Fingers! Fire at will!" He also has a pretty funny sense of humor and when he works with the kids he plays music from Fable on his phone and has them pretend they're shooting orcs and goblins and stuff.
PS Alyona is the 8th best women's karate fighter in the world. Cool stuff.
Shooting was also sweet. The kid next to me talked a mile a minute and I wasn't too bad. I "killed" 4 metal rats and got all of my bullets into our target. Sergei actually doffed his hat to me when we took my mark down, and I decided I like shooting.
The archery tournament was today. Lera won for the older kids; she's pretty much awesome. Her, Tolya, and I swung our hair, crazy-metal-type dance at the last disco. The last disco was fun. Little Misha (the 11-year-old)'s friends dragged him up to me during a slow song so we danced. It was total zombie dance and I don't think he looked me in the eyes once.
Halfway through the dance, last night, at about 10:30, we got pulled out and into a meeting. "So, tomorrow you have a holiday. What do you want to do?" We would've prepared more, but we only started at 10:30 last night! So we decided on just a mini-performance, and if Taras and Kostya can find them, fireworks tonight. I'm pretty excited, but I'm sick of "Old McDonald" and "My Country 'Tis of Thee" after singing it until 1:30 am last night so the music teacher could get the melody right on her piano.
Tonight is also the closing campefire, where everyone dresses up like Robin Hood again. Tomorrow we leave at 10 am, back to Olga's house; she said that perhaps we can use her parents' computers when we're there. But now she's back--gotta go! Sorry it's been so long!
Okay, Olga told me I only have 5 minutes, so real quick:
We went camping from Saturday 'til Monday, and when we got back the Internet was broken. It just got fixed today.
Here's what happened camping: It rained. We went canoeing. We were cold. We went to the bathroom in an outhouse made of sackcloth. It rained some more. We played volleyball until someone dropped the ball in the mud. Tolya played on the guitar. We were cold. It rained. We taosted bread. We took a walk in the woods. We swatted mosquitoes. We slept in sleeping bags. We weren't cold. We woke up and went out for breakfast. We were cold.
That's the general idea, but I'd like to try camping, real camping, for real sometime--I would've given half a leg for my hoodie and the other half for a sweater.
There was the fencing tournament (Tolya was the winner of the oldest group, and Slava was the winner of the youngest group). It was pretty cool to watch everyone fight. Egor and Ilya fought for show--Egor's pretty good. They both left for a different camp (to be campers), this made us sad because they were patient and fun to talk to.
We tried shooting and archery. Archery was super fun--Misha doesn't know that many words of English, so his commands went along the lines of "Stand! Hands! Fingers! Fire at will!" He also has a pretty funny sense of humor and when he works with the kids he plays music from Fable on his phone and has them pretend they're shooting orcs and goblins and stuff.
PS Alyona is the 8th best women's karate fighter in the world. Cool stuff.
Shooting was also sweet. The kid next to me talked a mile a minute and I wasn't too bad. I "killed" 4 metal rats and got all of my bullets into our target. Sergei actually doffed his hat to me when we took my mark down, and I decided I like shooting.
The archery tournament was today. Lera won for the older kids; she's pretty much awesome. Her, Tolya, and I swung our hair, crazy-metal-type dance at the last disco. The last disco was fun. Little Misha (the 11-year-old)'s friends dragged him up to me during a slow song so we danced. It was total zombie dance and I don't think he looked me in the eyes once.
Halfway through the dance, last night, at about 10:30, we got pulled out and into a meeting. "So, tomorrow you have a holiday. What do you want to do?" We would've prepared more, but we only started at 10:30 last night! So we decided on just a mini-performance, and if Taras and Kostya can find them, fireworks tonight. I'm pretty excited, but I'm sick of "Old McDonald" and "My Country 'Tis of Thee" after singing it until 1:30 am last night so the music teacher could get the melody right on her piano.
Tonight is also the closing campefire, where everyone dresses up like Robin Hood again. Tomorrow we leave at 10 am, back to Olga's house; she said that perhaps we can use her parents' computers when we're there. But now she's back--gotta go! Sorry it's been so long!
Saturday, June 28, 2008
June 28, 2008 || Roditelskii Den' (ie) Parents' Day
Parents' Day!
Oh man, this is the day that all the kids look forward to, and none of the staff or counselors--there's so much more work involved when every kid's parents, brother, sister and whatnot is running around, asking questions and getting into general trouble. Since Desi and I took a 2-hour nap today, we didn't actually get involved in too much of the action. We sang our song again during the performance for parents--each group did their best song/skit again--and then we worked at the rock climbing wall until 1ish, when we broke for lunch. Many of our campers still jumped and waved hi when they saw us, and we got introduced to parents everywhere we went, but just as many also smiled shyly and just waved from their parents' arms. It was all very interesting to me--there were lots of people who had that "I'm just bursting to talk to you but I'm afraid you won't understand me/my language skills are bad/or you won't like me" smile, and all I could think of was how much more fun it might be if we were all a little less worried about what the other person might think. Those that I started talking with were very excited to continue, including the parents I belayed for on the wall--THAT was fun too, though they were a bit heavy.
The rest of the day we stayed around our dorm, doing last minute packing and cleaning our clothes. Right after dinner we leave for our camping trip, so everything's got to get finished in the next 15 minutes (another short post). My hair is French-braided, courtesy of Desiree, since I won't be able to wash it for two days. All I'm taking is my backpack, and I'm not sure if it'll be enough, by the way they're talking how cold it usually is. It's been getting harder and harder to find time to write in my journal, since everywhere I go kids are dragging me off to play Pioneerball, or Russian hand/card games (I finally learned a Russian card game! It's awesome and while I was learning I was like "This is so Soviet" since there's only one loser and all the rest are winners) or American ones. Last night we had another late night, where Desi and I stayed up talking with Ilya and Egor about everything--Misha, and how part of the reason he's so cold to us is that he doesn't like Americans, movies, everything.
Working in the pool yesterday was great--the kids got really into water polo and it was fun to not have to be careful around the older ones. Other than that, I can't think of anything else to write right now (but there's always so much I want to say when I'm walking over! Every day there's a hundred tiny memories that I'll never be able to hang onto all at once, and they're only going to pop up months, years later in the smallest slivers... and I'm sure whoever I'm with then will never be able to appreciate them--like here's one! Alyesya was talking to her mom while I was belaying, and all of a sudden I caught the word "Anglichanan" so I of course had to turn around and call "We're not English! We're Americans!" .. even that's not that interesting, but it's these little flashes that I don't want to forget... there's just no way to hang onto them all).
Desi and I were listening to one of my mixes today that had "Breakfast at Tiffany's" on it.. I love that song. And I know, in just another week, I'm going to be thinking to myself, "And I hate when things are over..." 7 days left!
Oh man, this is the day that all the kids look forward to, and none of the staff or counselors--there's so much more work involved when every kid's parents, brother, sister and whatnot is running around, asking questions and getting into general trouble. Since Desi and I took a 2-hour nap today, we didn't actually get involved in too much of the action. We sang our song again during the performance for parents--each group did their best song/skit again--and then we worked at the rock climbing wall until 1ish, when we broke for lunch. Many of our campers still jumped and waved hi when they saw us, and we got introduced to parents everywhere we went, but just as many also smiled shyly and just waved from their parents' arms. It was all very interesting to me--there were lots of people who had that "I'm just bursting to talk to you but I'm afraid you won't understand me/my language skills are bad/or you won't like me" smile, and all I could think of was how much more fun it might be if we were all a little less worried about what the other person might think. Those that I started talking with were very excited to continue, including the parents I belayed for on the wall--THAT was fun too, though they were a bit heavy.
The rest of the day we stayed around our dorm, doing last minute packing and cleaning our clothes. Right after dinner we leave for our camping trip, so everything's got to get finished in the next 15 minutes (another short post). My hair is French-braided, courtesy of Desiree, since I won't be able to wash it for two days. All I'm taking is my backpack, and I'm not sure if it'll be enough, by the way they're talking how cold it usually is. It's been getting harder and harder to find time to write in my journal, since everywhere I go kids are dragging me off to play Pioneerball, or Russian hand/card games (I finally learned a Russian card game! It's awesome and while I was learning I was like "This is so Soviet" since there's only one loser and all the rest are winners) or American ones. Last night we had another late night, where Desi and I stayed up talking with Ilya and Egor about everything--Misha, and how part of the reason he's so cold to us is that he doesn't like Americans, movies, everything.
Working in the pool yesterday was great--the kids got really into water polo and it was fun to not have to be careful around the older ones. Other than that, I can't think of anything else to write right now (but there's always so much I want to say when I'm walking over! Every day there's a hundred tiny memories that I'll never be able to hang onto all at once, and they're only going to pop up months, years later in the smallest slivers... and I'm sure whoever I'm with then will never be able to appreciate them--like here's one! Alyesya was talking to her mom while I was belaying, and all of a sudden I caught the word "Anglichanan" so I of course had to turn around and call "We're not English! We're Americans!" .. even that's not that interesting, but it's these little flashes that I don't want to forget... there's just no way to hang onto them all).
Desi and I were listening to one of my mixes today that had "Breakfast at Tiffany's" on it.. I love that song. And I know, in just another week, I'm going to be thinking to myself, "And I hate when things are over..." 7 days left!
Friday, June 27, 2008
June 27, 2008 || First Late Night, Armor Class, Sword-Fighting
A quicksy post, since I've got to run and do things and I also posted late yesterday.
Last night, after horseback riding, there was anothoer show where all the groups performed little plays--most were song and dance routines, but some were absolutely ridiculous--one combined a magic beetle with Robin Hood and swordplay, another was a Paraguay-an folktale about a giant rabbit king, and I think my favorite part was just seeing Misha and Zhena in kimonos.
After, we watched Russia lose to Spain in the Eurocup semifinals (breaking the heart of nearly everyone at camp) and headed back to our dorm. Egor was watching cartoons and I couldn't sleep, so I sat and watched with him. Lo and behold, Adult Swim has made it to Russia. "Adult Swim! What does it mean?!" This was the beginning of a long night talking with Egor about a lot of different things--cartoons, TV in general, anime, then religion, history, language and so on. Kristina, Ilya, Nastya, and Valya eventually came from planyorka, and they all had fun teaching me knew Russian words. It becomes like a game, when we're trying to talk and I don't understand a word, for them to figure out how to explain ti to me. Then again, if I don't get it on the first try, it normally turns into a shouting match with each of them giving me different explanations at the same time, trying to talk over one another. So I picked up a little Russian slang, which is not to be used under any circumstances in camp, and we all had more than a few laughs at each others' expense and the differences in translation. It was one of those great exchanges that can really only happen at night, where you're sharing freely and everything can be funny.
Once I finally got to bed, it seemed like it was immediately morning. We were late (because we reported to the arms room only after Egor had been there) for our first lesson, but the kids were still suiting up for sword-fighting when we got there. Even though I ended up drenched in sweat by the end, it was probably my favorite lesson so far. We practiced fighting with the kids, and the main focus was holding our line--we held our shields like "fish scales," just like in 300 (I was so tempted to do the Spartan yell, but I didn't think anyone would get it). And then, of course, we proceeded to whack each other on the head with our sword-type things. Some of those kids can hit! For the first lesson, Desiree's team kicked butt-but during the second lesson, my Red Team cleaned up the court. It was a lot of fun and afterwards the little kids were all over us cheering and hugging. Egor worked really well with them, and I'm always surprised at how easily Russians switch between nice and caring and authoritative and strict--it's a balance that they maintain easily, without even thinking that the kids will get upset at them or whatnot. I kind of wish Americans were more like that--not really worrying about whether or not someone was going to "not like you" for doing your job and making them mind. After 2 hours of swordfighting we went to Armory Class, for a lack of a better name, and spent our time making chain mail. I've still got the piece I completed in my pocket--Valya let me keep it as a souvenir.
Soon we're supposed to meet with Zhena and plan out what we're going to be doing in the pool today, as we've two lessons to work there. I'm pretty excited, and would love to see how these kids play Marco Polo or Sharks and Minnows, as well as Water Polo. Then tonight we spend planning for parents day--tomorrow the children's parents can come and see what they've done, and in the evening the 1st Robin Hood group and us will be leaving on our camping trip (so no Internet, toilets, or shower for 2 days). That reminds me! I have to go deliver my letter to my little Misha friend today.
Well, thinking about that, this might be my last post for a few days. I'll have plenty of good stories to tell, I'm sure--just never enough time! I've taken something like 500 pictures so far, though, so that should help flesh out my tales better when I finally get to upload them back home.
Last night, after horseback riding, there was anothoer show where all the groups performed little plays--most were song and dance routines, but some were absolutely ridiculous--one combined a magic beetle with Robin Hood and swordplay, another was a Paraguay-an folktale about a giant rabbit king, and I think my favorite part was just seeing Misha and Zhena in kimonos.
After, we watched Russia lose to Spain in the Eurocup semifinals (breaking the heart of nearly everyone at camp) and headed back to our dorm. Egor was watching cartoons and I couldn't sleep, so I sat and watched with him. Lo and behold, Adult Swim has made it to Russia. "Adult Swim! What does it mean?!" This was the beginning of a long night talking with Egor about a lot of different things--cartoons, TV in general, anime, then religion, history, language and so on. Kristina, Ilya, Nastya, and Valya eventually came from planyorka, and they all had fun teaching me knew Russian words. It becomes like a game, when we're trying to talk and I don't understand a word, for them to figure out how to explain ti to me. Then again, if I don't get it on the first try, it normally turns into a shouting match with each of them giving me different explanations at the same time, trying to talk over one another. So I picked up a little Russian slang, which is not to be used under any circumstances in camp, and we all had more than a few laughs at each others' expense and the differences in translation. It was one of those great exchanges that can really only happen at night, where you're sharing freely and everything can be funny.
Once I finally got to bed, it seemed like it was immediately morning. We were late (because we reported to the arms room only after Egor had been there) for our first lesson, but the kids were still suiting up for sword-fighting when we got there. Even though I ended up drenched in sweat by the end, it was probably my favorite lesson so far. We practiced fighting with the kids, and the main focus was holding our line--we held our shields like "fish scales," just like in 300 (I was so tempted to do the Spartan yell, but I didn't think anyone would get it). And then, of course, we proceeded to whack each other on the head with our sword-type things. Some of those kids can hit! For the first lesson, Desiree's team kicked butt-but during the second lesson, my Red Team cleaned up the court. It was a lot of fun and afterwards the little kids were all over us cheering and hugging. Egor worked really well with them, and I'm always surprised at how easily Russians switch between nice and caring and authoritative and strict--it's a balance that they maintain easily, without even thinking that the kids will get upset at them or whatnot. I kind of wish Americans were more like that--not really worrying about whether or not someone was going to "not like you" for doing your job and making them mind. After 2 hours of swordfighting we went to Armory Class, for a lack of a better name, and spent our time making chain mail. I've still got the piece I completed in my pocket--Valya let me keep it as a souvenir.
Soon we're supposed to meet with Zhena and plan out what we're going to be doing in the pool today, as we've two lessons to work there. I'm pretty excited, and would love to see how these kids play Marco Polo or Sharks and Minnows, as well as Water Polo. Then tonight we spend planning for parents day--tomorrow the children's parents can come and see what they've done, and in the evening the 1st Robin Hood group and us will be leaving on our camping trip (so no Internet, toilets, or shower for 2 days). That reminds me! I have to go deliver my letter to my little Misha friend today.
Well, thinking about that, this might be my last post for a few days. I'll have plenty of good stories to tell, I'm sure--just never enough time! I've taken something like 500 pictures so far, though, so that should help flesh out my tales better when I finally get to upload them back home.
Thursday, June 26, 2008
June 26, 2008 || Last Day, Karolina; Rock Climbing; My Misha
Today's been such a full day I can hardly remember yesterday!
Yesterday was our last day at Carolina camp, which is a bit bittersweet. Since we live with Robin Hood campers, we've already gotten to be pretty good friends with some of them, and now we'll be spending all of our daily activities with them too, which means we'll probably hardly ever see the Carolina girls. However, this also means that I'm trading Makeup Class, Catwalk practice, and Tea Ceremony for Climbing class, archery, shooting, and such, which is more up my alley.
Yesterday we went to a design class with the girls, and while they designed their kimonos, we made tapochki. I'm actually pretty excited about mine and plan on wearing them around the dorm. Also, yesterday I received a love letter from Misha in the second group of Robin Hood. Gleb and friends came running up to our table at dinner and asked if I had seen my letter. Well, I hadn't been back to the room all day so of course I hadn't, and he told me to look for the pink heart laying on top of the map (he actually meant cards, but the word is the same in Russian). Misha, Robin Hood Misha walked in while I was writing my reply, and he had quite a bit of fun thinking that I was writing my letter to him: "I live right next door! Don't write a letter, just come say hi!" Turns out Misha dictated, and Gleb translated into English--their group went on poxod last night, so I won't get to deliver my answer until tomorrow, and they also missed the disco--for that matter, Desi and I almost missed the disco too! We took our sweet time getting there and only danced for the last half hour, both to savve our clothes and our energy--for some reason we were both pretty worn out yesterday (oh! because we taught sport/aerobics yesterday, and aerobics kind of devolved into Pioneerball with Olga and I dancing to Aqua and the Spice Girls in the background). Later that night, we found out who our "Secret Friends" were--we all gathered in the auditorium and went around trying to guess--I was completely wrong, the music teacher, Svetlana Borisovna had me! I would've never guessed her, not in a million years. And Nadya, who I had, thought that Olga was her secret friend, so I must have been doing at least halfway decently in writing things in Russian. HmHmHm what else...
Oh, enough of yesterday. Today we did rock climbing! It was so much fun--the first class we climbed, to show the kids the right way to do so, and then we helped belay (excuse the spelling). Something that never ceases to amaze me about Russia is the general disregard for safety--Masha just showed me how to thread my lines, pulled my hand back, and then attached a kid to me. Did pretty well though, didn't drop anybody and we all had fun. Each time Igor and Masha would have the kids do amazing stretches, I have some video of them all dancing together. And when they got to the top, you weren't supposed to let them down until they answered a question, sang a song, or recited a poem--my kids all had to say Russian tongue-twisters, and I wouldn't let them down until they fairly yelled it out. We helped with three classes, and by the end my hands were black all over and starting to callous--but it was great. We napped most of Tixii Chas, and then we met at the front gates with a few other children to wait for our ride. We jumped in a truck and headed 30 minutes out of camp, passing hills, forests, at least one monastery, some markets, and finally stopped at a farm.
This was the best part of the day.
We went horseback riding! I can't tell you how excited I was to be there, just to pet the horses and be around them. I can't smell, of course, but somehow the air FEELS different on a farm. And the beauty of this place was just indescribable. The land spread out so far and gently rolling you could watch night walking toward you from miles away, and there were horses just running around, goats and cows and dogs. The kids rode in a general circle in the lone paddock out back, and after Desi and I got walked out to the woods and back. Sure, we didn't go riding like at Mackinac or anything, but just to BE on a horse made a world of difference (especially after that breakneck car ride, thought I was going to die, puke, or do both at the same time for sure. Apparently they don't pass in the other lane here--the car whose butt you're riding starts cruising on the shoulder and you kind of straddle the middle, so oncoming traffic isn't a problem--provided they take to the shoulder too). I'm such a little girl, still going crazy over horses, although it was a skosh scary--I wasn't afraid of the horses or anything, but I'm not used to a saddle without a saddlehorn--it wasn't quite English-style, but it certainly wasn't Western... and furthermore, they had us hold the reins very strangely.
Tonight... well, I plan on showering sometime today, and then Spain plays Russia (like Kat has said). It should be a pretty good match, and I'm sure we'll all be hoarse by the end of the night. Tomorrow, I'm pretty sure we're working in the pool all day, which also excites me, 'cause or Robin Hood that means one game: WATER POLO! ^_^
Yesterday was our last day at Carolina camp, which is a bit bittersweet. Since we live with Robin Hood campers, we've already gotten to be pretty good friends with some of them, and now we'll be spending all of our daily activities with them too, which means we'll probably hardly ever see the Carolina girls. However, this also means that I'm trading Makeup Class, Catwalk practice, and Tea Ceremony for Climbing class, archery, shooting, and such, which is more up my alley.
Yesterday we went to a design class with the girls, and while they designed their kimonos, we made tapochki. I'm actually pretty excited about mine and plan on wearing them around the dorm. Also, yesterday I received a love letter from Misha in the second group of Robin Hood. Gleb and friends came running up to our table at dinner and asked if I had seen my letter. Well, I hadn't been back to the room all day so of course I hadn't, and he told me to look for the pink heart laying on top of the map (he actually meant cards, but the word is the same in Russian). Misha, Robin Hood Misha walked in while I was writing my reply, and he had quite a bit of fun thinking that I was writing my letter to him: "I live right next door! Don't write a letter, just come say hi!" Turns out Misha dictated, and Gleb translated into English--their group went on poxod last night, so I won't get to deliver my answer until tomorrow, and they also missed the disco--for that matter, Desi and I almost missed the disco too! We took our sweet time getting there and only danced for the last half hour, both to savve our clothes and our energy--for some reason we were both pretty worn out yesterday (oh! because we taught sport/aerobics yesterday, and aerobics kind of devolved into Pioneerball with Olga and I dancing to Aqua and the Spice Girls in the background). Later that night, we found out who our "Secret Friends" were--we all gathered in the auditorium and went around trying to guess--I was completely wrong, the music teacher, Svetlana Borisovna had me! I would've never guessed her, not in a million years. And Nadya, who I had, thought that Olga was her secret friend, so I must have been doing at least halfway decently in writing things in Russian. HmHmHm what else...
Oh, enough of yesterday. Today we did rock climbing! It was so much fun--the first class we climbed, to show the kids the right way to do so, and then we helped belay (excuse the spelling). Something that never ceases to amaze me about Russia is the general disregard for safety--Masha just showed me how to thread my lines, pulled my hand back, and then attached a kid to me. Did pretty well though, didn't drop anybody and we all had fun. Each time Igor and Masha would have the kids do amazing stretches, I have some video of them all dancing together. And when they got to the top, you weren't supposed to let them down until they answered a question, sang a song, or recited a poem--my kids all had to say Russian tongue-twisters, and I wouldn't let them down until they fairly yelled it out. We helped with three classes, and by the end my hands were black all over and starting to callous--but it was great. We napped most of Tixii Chas, and then we met at the front gates with a few other children to wait for our ride. We jumped in a truck and headed 30 minutes out of camp, passing hills, forests, at least one monastery, some markets, and finally stopped at a farm.
This was the best part of the day.
We went horseback riding! I can't tell you how excited I was to be there, just to pet the horses and be around them. I can't smell, of course, but somehow the air FEELS different on a farm. And the beauty of this place was just indescribable. The land spread out so far and gently rolling you could watch night walking toward you from miles away, and there were horses just running around, goats and cows and dogs. The kids rode in a general circle in the lone paddock out back, and after Desi and I got walked out to the woods and back. Sure, we didn't go riding like at Mackinac or anything, but just to BE on a horse made a world of difference (especially after that breakneck car ride, thought I was going to die, puke, or do both at the same time for sure. Apparently they don't pass in the other lane here--the car whose butt you're riding starts cruising on the shoulder and you kind of straddle the middle, so oncoming traffic isn't a problem--provided they take to the shoulder too). I'm such a little girl, still going crazy over horses, although it was a skosh scary--I wasn't afraid of the horses or anything, but I'm not used to a saddle without a saddlehorn--it wasn't quite English-style, but it certainly wasn't Western... and furthermore, they had us hold the reins very strangely.
Tonight... well, I plan on showering sometime today, and then Spain plays Russia (like Kat has said). It should be a pretty good match, and I'm sure we'll all be hoarse by the end of the night. Tomorrow, I'm pretty sure we're working in the pool all day, which also excites me, 'cause or Robin Hood that means one game: WATER POLO! ^_^
Wednesday, June 25, 2008
June 25, 2008 || Vozhatii Zhaklin!
Alright, so I survived having a group of girls to control yesterday. It wasn't so much that they were badly-behaved (they weren't) but that I was constantly stressing that I would make a mistake, someone would be late to their photo shoot, or someone would accidentally get hurt. I didn't want to be the cause of anything bad happening, then they'd be like "Oh those darn Americans, you can't trust them with anything"--actually, they probably wouldn't have said anything like that since this place is nothing but a constant self-esteem drip, but you know.
"Try your best" really seems to count here--everything I've done, and for most of the girls, too, as long as we've tried, we've pretty much gotten standing ovations. Effort actually MEANS something here. In America, I often feel like when we say "Well, you did your best," there's an unspoken "but you lost anyway" tagged onto the end of it.
After I last posted, I ran around taking the girls to their photoshoots and catwalk class, and keeping the remainder busy. Part of that entailed letting them paint my nails all different colors. "Klyova," as they would say. Later I went to bed early, since it'd been a tiring day, after playing Skip-Bo with some of the girls next door. One of them, Natasha, was on TV giving an interview about Robin Hood camp yesterday! That was pretty cool, seeing Misha and Egor on TV and all.
Speaking of Misha, between him and Nastya and Kristina it seems that all of Robin Hood is sick. He was just walking around the dorm all day with a blanket wrapped around his shoulders, and Nastya's had this nasty cold ever since we got here, so all I can do is try to choke down some airborne and hope I don't get sick.
Today we taught sport again,with the youngest group and then with one of the oldest. Poor Natasha! She's probably so far my favorite counselor, but running after 20 8-year-olds all day is hard work. It always seems like one is wandering off to go play in the dirt somewhere. Well, Natasha or our Olga, who helps us out all the time. She found a boombox for our second Sport class, and we kind of stood in the back of our Pioneerball team and danced to the Spice Girls and Aqua. I am soooo glad I made a 90s mix, let me tell you.
Gleb brought me his plate today, that was cool; then again, he brought it and then proceeded to tell me something else about how Misha still liked me, thanks buddy. Lunch was great today: I can't tell you how nice it is when all of the things line up. Desiree and I walk into each meal going "Okay, I hope we have the good tea--I hope we have the good soup--I hope we're eating something other than kasha" and then it's kind of a crapshoot as to whether we'll get anything we like. Days where there's good soup + good tea + good meal = a 5-star day.
Later tonight we've got another disco, to which Desiree and I plan on being a bit late, since constant dancing for an hour and a half is a little much, both for the body and for the class. Right now the staff room is very quiet, Misha's leaning back just watching things, Valya's checking out some websites, Victor's looking at his photos, and Igor's playing guitar over in the corner... quiet time (tixii chas) is probably my favorite time of day... you can walk all around camp and see the counselors/staff quietly doing their own relaxing things, you can hear the children talking softly out the windows, and everything is just... tixii, I suppose. Oh! And there's no music!
Have I talked about that yet? I apologize if I have, but you get to hear about it again. The Russians are crazy about techno. Now, I knew this, but I didn't realize it extended to camp life, too. Every morning at 8am we awake to hours blaring from the speakers. And all through the day, during lessons, in between lesson changes, we listen to the music Adir and Kostya choose to play.. which is basically the equivalent of what you'd find in a Russian club. It gives a very dream-like quality to the entire camp. I mean, how can you really feel like you're living real life when there's a soundtrack to it? Even at night, around 8 or so when I go out to write in my journal, there's still snares and synthesizers bouncing off the trees all around me. There's just absolutely no way of truly describing this to you... it gets under your skin, and you don't even realize you're swaying along to some woman just belting her heart out until the song's over.
Anyway, I think that's enough for today. I got invited to go visit some of the girls during their quiet time, but I think I'd better go catch a nap and work on my stuff for my "Secret Friend" first. Oh! That game is turning out to be a lot of fun, by the way. My friend gave me a "vase" (read: big plastic cup) filled with flowers, and a lovely note attached to a jar of "night cream" (I haven't quite figured out what to do with it yet, but I'm going to take my dictionary to its label tonight). I feel bad that I can't give Nadya anything aside from handmade signs--although I'm thankful to Vika and the Robin Hood group for helping us out--again, I'm sorry if I've already spoken about this, the ctrl+f search function isn't working, so I can't find what I've said and what I haven't.
Haha, Igor just strummed "Smoke on the Water"--it's so interesting to listen to people who don't know English sing English songs. I wonder how I sound when I try to sing along with DDT, Zveri, or Vysotski--probably pretty funny.
"Try your best" really seems to count here--everything I've done, and for most of the girls, too, as long as we've tried, we've pretty much gotten standing ovations. Effort actually MEANS something here. In America, I often feel like when we say "Well, you did your best," there's an unspoken "but you lost anyway" tagged onto the end of it.
After I last posted, I ran around taking the girls to their photoshoots and catwalk class, and keeping the remainder busy. Part of that entailed letting them paint my nails all different colors. "Klyova," as they would say. Later I went to bed early, since it'd been a tiring day, after playing Skip-Bo with some of the girls next door. One of them, Natasha, was on TV giving an interview about Robin Hood camp yesterday! That was pretty cool, seeing Misha and Egor on TV and all.
Speaking of Misha, between him and Nastya and Kristina it seems that all of Robin Hood is sick. He was just walking around the dorm all day with a blanket wrapped around his shoulders, and Nastya's had this nasty cold ever since we got here, so all I can do is try to choke down some airborne and hope I don't get sick.
Today we taught sport again,with the youngest group and then with one of the oldest. Poor Natasha! She's probably so far my favorite counselor, but running after 20 8-year-olds all day is hard work. It always seems like one is wandering off to go play in the dirt somewhere. Well, Natasha or our Olga, who helps us out all the time. She found a boombox for our second Sport class, and we kind of stood in the back of our Pioneerball team and danced to the Spice Girls and Aqua. I am soooo glad I made a 90s mix, let me tell you.
Gleb brought me his plate today, that was cool; then again, he brought it and then proceeded to tell me something else about how Misha still liked me, thanks buddy. Lunch was great today: I can't tell you how nice it is when all of the things line up. Desiree and I walk into each meal going "Okay, I hope we have the good tea--I hope we have the good soup--I hope we're eating something other than kasha" and then it's kind of a crapshoot as to whether we'll get anything we like. Days where there's good soup + good tea + good meal = a 5-star day.
Later tonight we've got another disco, to which Desiree and I plan on being a bit late, since constant dancing for an hour and a half is a little much, both for the body and for the class. Right now the staff room is very quiet, Misha's leaning back just watching things, Valya's checking out some websites, Victor's looking at his photos, and Igor's playing guitar over in the corner... quiet time (tixii chas) is probably my favorite time of day... you can walk all around camp and see the counselors/staff quietly doing their own relaxing things, you can hear the children talking softly out the windows, and everything is just... tixii, I suppose. Oh! And there's no music!
Have I talked about that yet? I apologize if I have, but you get to hear about it again. The Russians are crazy about techno. Now, I knew this, but I didn't realize it extended to camp life, too. Every morning at 8am we awake to hours blaring from the speakers. And all through the day, during lessons, in between lesson changes, we listen to the music Adir and Kostya choose to play.. which is basically the equivalent of what you'd find in a Russian club. It gives a very dream-like quality to the entire camp. I mean, how can you really feel like you're living real life when there's a soundtrack to it? Even at night, around 8 or so when I go out to write in my journal, there's still snares and synthesizers bouncing off the trees all around me. There's just absolutely no way of truly describing this to you... it gets under your skin, and you don't even realize you're swaying along to some woman just belting her heart out until the song's over.
Anyway, I think that's enough for today. I got invited to go visit some of the girls during their quiet time, but I think I'd better go catch a nap and work on my stuff for my "Secret Friend" first. Oh! That game is turning out to be a lot of fun, by the way. My friend gave me a "vase" (read: big plastic cup) filled with flowers, and a lovely note attached to a jar of "night cream" (I haven't quite figured out what to do with it yet, but I'm going to take my dictionary to its label tonight). I feel bad that I can't give Nadya anything aside from handmade signs--although I'm thankful to Vika and the Robin Hood group for helping us out--again, I'm sorry if I've already spoken about this, the ctrl+f search function isn't working, so I can't find what I've said and what I haven't.
Haha, Igor just strummed "Smoke on the Water"--it's so interesting to listen to people who don't know English sing English songs. I wonder how I sound when I try to sing along with DDT, Zveri, or Vysotski--probably pretty funny.
Tuesday, June 24, 2008
June 2_, 2008 || Nervous and Amused
I forget today's date and the computer's having one of its fits where things aren't working quite right.
This'll be a quick post because I have to go pick up my group in about 10 minutes--MY group! Taya went home for the day because, I think, her birthday was yesterday and she deserves a break, and that means with Olga working at the pool all day, the 3rd Group needed a counselor... soooo apparently I'm in charge. Does this strike anyone else as absurd? If the kids really wanted to, they could get me to do whatever they want, since I can't understand everything someone is saying to me. Thank god they're good--they're actually the mod group, the ones that crush us with hugs every time they see us. Things have been going fine so far in the morning--we went to the pool, then rested and now they have theater and choreography, and later I have to take them to "catwalk" and some other class, I can't remember what. Interesting curriculum, nyeh? Hopefully Olga will take over during quiet hour, I could really use a nap. Last night we played volleyball for roughly 3 hours straight--first we got invited by the kids to play Pioneerball, which morphed into volleyball--
Oh, time out. I've got a boyfriend here. We walked out of dinner and a bunch of boys ran up to us shouting "He love you! He is love you!" and they were pointing and then this boy took off chasing another one shouting "I'll kill you!" in Russian. Took me awhile to figure out Misha, who's probably 10 years old, apparently has a crush on me. A group of 5 kids dragged him over later when I asked if I could get a picture with him, and one little boy kept saying "Give him a kiss, give him a kiss, it'll make him very very happy." ...we'll see about that, don't want to be leading anyone on. =P And then a group of the counselors and staff played volleyball together. I was surprised at how seriously some of the older men took it, and how good they were! Zhena, our pool friend, also played, and man can he wail on the ball. He spiked it, Volodya caught a piece of it on his elbow, and then it ricocheted right into my face, so I can definitely speak from experience. Aside from the minor cuts all down my le from the hard court, it was definitely a good time.
Okay, I think tomorrow we have another disco annnnnd I can't think of anything else to say and I hear my group trickling out of theater so I'd better go pick them up.
Thanks to everyone who left comments!
This'll be a quick post because I have to go pick up my group in about 10 minutes--MY group! Taya went home for the day because, I think, her birthday was yesterday and she deserves a break, and that means with Olga working at the pool all day, the 3rd Group needed a counselor... soooo apparently I'm in charge. Does this strike anyone else as absurd? If the kids really wanted to, they could get me to do whatever they want, since I can't understand everything someone is saying to me. Thank god they're good--they're actually the mod group, the ones that crush us with hugs every time they see us. Things have been going fine so far in the morning--we went to the pool, then rested and now they have theater and choreography, and later I have to take them to "catwalk" and some other class, I can't remember what. Interesting curriculum, nyeh? Hopefully Olga will take over during quiet hour, I could really use a nap. Last night we played volleyball for roughly 3 hours straight--first we got invited by the kids to play Pioneerball, which morphed into volleyball--
Oh, time out. I've got a boyfriend here. We walked out of dinner and a bunch of boys ran up to us shouting "He love you! He is love you!" and they were pointing and then this boy took off chasing another one shouting "I'll kill you!" in Russian. Took me awhile to figure out Misha, who's probably 10 years old, apparently has a crush on me. A group of 5 kids dragged him over later when I asked if I could get a picture with him, and one little boy kept saying "Give him a kiss, give him a kiss, it'll make him very very happy." ...we'll see about that, don't want to be leading anyone on. =P And then a group of the counselors and staff played volleyball together. I was surprised at how seriously some of the older men took it, and how good they were! Zhena, our pool friend, also played, and man can he wail on the ball. He spiked it, Volodya caught a piece of it on his elbow, and then it ricocheted right into my face, so I can definitely speak from experience. Aside from the minor cuts all down my le from the hard court, it was definitely a good time.
Okay, I think tomorrow we have another disco annnnnd I can't think of anything else to say and I hear my group trickling out of theater so I'd better go pick them up.
Thanks to everyone who left comments!
Monday, June 23, 2008
June 23, 2008 || Fitting In.. Laundry, Games, Theater Class and Tea Ceremony
So all day yesterday Zhena was walking around in his Russia sweats get-up (there's a picture of his coat towards the end of the Carolina pictures for day 5, near where Desiree and I are singing our song on stage--THAT was fun) because Russia defeated Holland the night before. Next they play Spain, who defeated Italy (when I heard that I immediately started talking about Davide, and let me tell you, if it sounded funny when Nana said his name, the first few tries for these Russian kids was hysterical), but I'm not sure when. I'd really like to actually watch a whole match one of these days. Anyway, so when we asked Zhena if he'd gotten in trouble, he just kind of shook his head and said "Everything's cool." which doesn't really tell us whether or not he got busted, but he's still talking to us, so that's a good thing...
I did my first load of laundry yesterday. Kind of. I stuffed my sock in the bottom of one of the sinks in our bathroom and filled it up with my clothes and warm water, then dumped a ton of detergent in there. A stream of girls was coming in and out, since it was the time before svechka, and between Vika and Rita (campers) we covered a lot of ground... and they saw most of my underwear. Oh well. I'm pretty sure most of it didn't get all that clean, especially since (being a complete idiot) the socks that I played Pioneerball in were the first things to get thrown in, little pebbles, pieces of grass and all. I strung up my clothesline under Masha's bunk in our room, but there was no way my t-shirts and things were going to fit on there, so I just put my underwear and socks on the line (slava Boga, I was down to my last pair of "nickers," as Sam would say). I took my t-shirts and such to what I've started calling "the Hothouse." It has a boy's side and a girl's side, this low brick building whose doors are always unlocked. The room inside is super super hot, and I'd imagine it smells pretty bad. There are a bunch of metal racks on which everyone lays their clothes to dry. It works like magic--after morning exercises today I popped back in and my clothes were completely dry! Better than the Cavanaugh driers, half the time. My socks are still wet, but I've gotten used to wearing and rewearing some things. My Hot Hot Heat shirt feels like cardboard, though, and has some lingering white marks (probably from all the soap I used).
Our dorm room feels a bit like home, now, too. Masha let us hang extra pictures of hers over the bed, and she is great to talk to (something about Mashas--they must all be good people). She even picked some wildflowers and set them in a cup of water on our table. My clothes are all jumbled into my closet, with some of them hanging off of various things in our room. Worse than that, by far, are my notebooks and books and borrowed Russian fairy tales, all scattered everywhere. There's so much to write down! Songs from camp, my own thoughts, new words I should learn, the daily schedules, I just don't have room for it all! And just like at school, we keep our doors unlocked. I don't even know HOW to lock our doors, come to think of it; but you don't worry about that sort of thing here.
Today I went to Theater class and Tea Ceremony practice--I think Alyona might be my favorite instructor (tea ceremony, karate) even though I'm not entirely sure how she feels about me. I THINK she likes me, but I can't tell if it's Russian politeness or genuine interest. I feel that way about more than one of the instructors/staff, even the other counselors. One of the Olgas (okay, from now on there's blonde Olga, who teaches Theater and speaks English; Olya, whose apartment we lived at; Director Olga, who seems to be in charge of all Robin Hood camp; Our Olga, who helps us with our lessons and also works at the pool, and Pop Rocks Olga, who dresses like a fashion star and is about as sparky as you can get), blonde Olga, really knows her stuff for theater--getting the kids to warm up, act things out, be creative. I feel like I could just bring a notebook to her class and jot things down for my own benefit, to use with kids later. Today was the first day I've really seen her since the Camp Introduction meeting--she's another "Polite, but not sure how much we have in common" instructors/counselors.
Oh! I shouldn't make it sound like we're being ostracized, though. Last night, Nastya (our roommate), Masha, and Kristina were sitting around eating these delicious chocolates (zefira-filled, if I remember correctly) and they invited Desiree and I both to have a chocolate and to play in a game with the other Russian counselors. I forget what the game is called, but it's kind of like Secret Santa--you draw a secret name, and for a few days you leave them small gifts--maybe candy, an extra piece of fruit, or something small like a song or rhyme. At the end of the week or whatnot, you get together and have to guess who your person was.
Personally, I think this'll be a challenge for Desiree and I, since we're pretty obviously not Russian AT ALL, but Kristina suggested asking the kids for help, which was a great idea.
Anyway, for the rest of the day we've just got choreography--and I'm pretty sure we're supposed to be teaching the girls dances. This ought to be interesting.
Personally, I'm going to go wash some more things and maybe squeeze in a nap/shower during quiet time. After last night's performance (we sang a song with the kids, part of it in Russia, part of it in English, about friends across the sea and stuff) I'd like to just chill and play Pioneerball for the night. We'll see.
Oh, and if you have questions about anything, please ask! Slash, say anything at all. Being so far away, in terms of distance AND time (it's 12:30 here now, which means back home it's 4:30 in the morning), I feel completely disconnected from everyone back home. =)
I did my first load of laundry yesterday. Kind of. I stuffed my sock in the bottom of one of the sinks in our bathroom and filled it up with my clothes and warm water, then dumped a ton of detergent in there. A stream of girls was coming in and out, since it was the time before svechka, and between Vika and Rita (campers) we covered a lot of ground... and they saw most of my underwear. Oh well. I'm pretty sure most of it didn't get all that clean, especially since (being a complete idiot) the socks that I played Pioneerball in were the first things to get thrown in, little pebbles, pieces of grass and all. I strung up my clothesline under Masha's bunk in our room, but there was no way my t-shirts and things were going to fit on there, so I just put my underwear and socks on the line (slava Boga, I was down to my last pair of "nickers," as Sam would say). I took my t-shirts and such to what I've started calling "the Hothouse." It has a boy's side and a girl's side, this low brick building whose doors are always unlocked. The room inside is super super hot, and I'd imagine it smells pretty bad. There are a bunch of metal racks on which everyone lays their clothes to dry. It works like magic--after morning exercises today I popped back in and my clothes were completely dry! Better than the Cavanaugh driers, half the time. My socks are still wet, but I've gotten used to wearing and rewearing some things. My Hot Hot Heat shirt feels like cardboard, though, and has some lingering white marks (probably from all the soap I used).
Our dorm room feels a bit like home, now, too. Masha let us hang extra pictures of hers over the bed, and she is great to talk to (something about Mashas--they must all be good people). She even picked some wildflowers and set them in a cup of water on our table. My clothes are all jumbled into my closet, with some of them hanging off of various things in our room. Worse than that, by far, are my notebooks and books and borrowed Russian fairy tales, all scattered everywhere. There's so much to write down! Songs from camp, my own thoughts, new words I should learn, the daily schedules, I just don't have room for it all! And just like at school, we keep our doors unlocked. I don't even know HOW to lock our doors, come to think of it; but you don't worry about that sort of thing here.
Today I went to Theater class and Tea Ceremony practice--I think Alyona might be my favorite instructor (tea ceremony, karate) even though I'm not entirely sure how she feels about me. I THINK she likes me, but I can't tell if it's Russian politeness or genuine interest. I feel that way about more than one of the instructors/staff, even the other counselors. One of the Olgas (okay, from now on there's blonde Olga, who teaches Theater and speaks English; Olya, whose apartment we lived at; Director Olga, who seems to be in charge of all Robin Hood camp; Our Olga, who helps us with our lessons and also works at the pool, and Pop Rocks Olga, who dresses like a fashion star and is about as sparky as you can get), blonde Olga, really knows her stuff for theater--getting the kids to warm up, act things out, be creative. I feel like I could just bring a notebook to her class and jot things down for my own benefit, to use with kids later. Today was the first day I've really seen her since the Camp Introduction meeting--she's another "Polite, but not sure how much we have in common" instructors/counselors.
Oh! I shouldn't make it sound like we're being ostracized, though. Last night, Nastya (our roommate), Masha, and Kristina were sitting around eating these delicious chocolates (zefira-filled, if I remember correctly) and they invited Desiree and I both to have a chocolate and to play in a game with the other Russian counselors. I forget what the game is called, but it's kind of like Secret Santa--you draw a secret name, and for a few days you leave them small gifts--maybe candy, an extra piece of fruit, or something small like a song or rhyme. At the end of the week or whatnot, you get together and have to guess who your person was.
Personally, I think this'll be a challenge for Desiree and I, since we're pretty obviously not Russian AT ALL, but Kristina suggested asking the kids for help, which was a great idea.
Anyway, for the rest of the day we've just got choreography--and I'm pretty sure we're supposed to be teaching the girls dances. This ought to be interesting.
Personally, I'm going to go wash some more things and maybe squeeze in a nap/shower during quiet time. After last night's performance (we sang a song with the kids, part of it in Russia, part of it in English, about friends across the sea and stuff) I'd like to just chill and play Pioneerball for the night. We'll see.
Oh, and if you have questions about anything, please ask! Slash, say anything at all. Being so far away, in terms of distance AND time (it's 12:30 here now, which means back home it's 4:30 in the morning), I feel completely disconnected from everyone back home. =)
Sunday, June 22, 2008
June 22, 2008 || First Disco & Some Funny Stories
Soooo last night was the disco.
You have no idea.
I was soaked with sweat after. Literally soaked. I had sweat marks on my stomach and everything! It was pretty gross, but I figured out why the other counselors wore black. We crammed all those kids into the disco hall and then Adir played all sorts of music. Most of it was techno or house in style, which is pretty much all Russians listen to. Even during the day, music is normally played over loudspeakers so that students know when their lesson is over or when it's time to go to lunch, et cetera, and if it's not camp songs that everyone can speak together it's normally techno (occasionally there's an opera lady singing, but I never realize it's her until I'm swaying to the music). Howeeeeever Adir did play some American music--he really likes R&B and his favorite artists are Eminem, 50 Cent, those sorts of musicians. Imagine my surprise when the "Apple-Bottom Jeans" song came over the speakers. We could sing and dance along! But when the kids asked us to translate American songs, we were both like "Nooo way."
Anyway, after we were done we fond Zhena, master of the pool, and asked (mostly joking) if we could go swimming. He responded with "You want to? Now?" and of course we said yes, so we ended up going to the pool. It was kind of sort of not allowed, so we had to be really quiet and didn't stay too long, but he was really friendly and we talked a lot. We came back to change and watch Russia play Holland for EuroCup, but Desiree and I had to go planyorka instead. We thiiiiiiink Zhena might have gotten in trouble for letting us swim, since we walked back in with wet hair, clutching towels, and all the kids could clearly tell we'd been in the pool. But we haven't seen him since, so we can't really ask.
The weather today was not so nice, so we had our "Sport" class inside. We played Uno and Twister, Hand-Clap games and 7-Up, and I busted out my Blink! cards too (which was definitely a worthy buy in New York). Sometimes it's hard to play when you've got kids hanging off of you who just want to be on your team--then you have to figure out how to say "No teams! Everyone for themselves!" in Russian. I think I'm getting better--my ability to speak in Russian for longer periods of time is improving. After our lessons, a bunch of the girls swarmed us, asking for our e-mails and our "Avtographs," which I thought was pretty cool. We're basically stars. =P Not, but it was really cute. We traded e-mails with Taya (Tasya? Taya is maybe an even shorter name?) and Olga our helper, who asked if we could take Uno or Blink! to planyorka next time. Answer: Of course! It's really great knowing that something we showed them or brought is interesting enough for them to want to borrow it.
Tonight we have our song, and the other performances to watch, but we're pretty much done for the day, which is nice.
I feel like there's more that needs to be said, but I don't know what. I think about the other groups a lot, wondering how they're doing further out in Siberia, wondering if anyone is down to building houses out of mud and sticks. We've got an auditorium, and a ropes course, and a photography class--we're pretty freaking well off here. I would love to know how they've been: if Zack is just wowing kids with his Russian, if Sam is still arguing (by the order of Her Majesty the Queen) that potato chips are really called crisps, if Jacob let his kids shave his head. I suppose I'll find out soon enough.
[Aside: Misha (hard-ass Misha) is playing Mortal Kombat 3 right now and I'm sure he's losing, which is hysterical]
Finished The Poisonwood Bible. Highly recommended for any Book Club (or general self-improvement). Read Heart of Darkness first, and then watch Apocalypse Now after.
For the most part, I'm okay with being misunderstood. Every day there's a new story. Such as:
1: Nelli was handing out scarves to all the girls at the meeting, giving them pink ones. We'd been told we'd wear blue, since we're not quite counselors and we'd be working with both camps. I tried to tell her that we were getting blue scarves, but it just came out as "Blue for us" or "To us, blue" which, considering that "blue" is slang for homosexual, came out as "Her and I are gay."
2: Wandered into the wrong dorm and spent 10 minutes wondering how they had moved all our stuff out of room 4 and moved in another group so fast, and why we didn't recognize anyone, until a group leader told us to go up to the 4th floor and then we realized we had an entirely wrong building.
3: Instead of saying "Those boys I saw writing last night," I put the accent on the wrong part of the verb and said "Those boys I saw pissing last night."
4: When Egor offered us a candy with iron to make children strong, like bulls, and all I caught were the words "blood" and "bull" and thought this little candy bar would start bleeding bull blood as soon as I cracked it in half.
5: Accidentally implying Misha (Robin Hood) is a girl every time I talk to him.
You have no idea.
I was soaked with sweat after. Literally soaked. I had sweat marks on my stomach and everything! It was pretty gross, but I figured out why the other counselors wore black. We crammed all those kids into the disco hall and then Adir played all sorts of music. Most of it was techno or house in style, which is pretty much all Russians listen to. Even during the day, music is normally played over loudspeakers so that students know when their lesson is over or when it's time to go to lunch, et cetera, and if it's not camp songs that everyone can speak together it's normally techno (occasionally there's an opera lady singing, but I never realize it's her until I'm swaying to the music). Howeeeeever Adir did play some American music--he really likes R&B and his favorite artists are Eminem, 50 Cent, those sorts of musicians. Imagine my surprise when the "Apple-Bottom Jeans" song came over the speakers. We could sing and dance along! But when the kids asked us to translate American songs, we were both like "Nooo way."
Anyway, after we were done we fond Zhena, master of the pool, and asked (mostly joking) if we could go swimming. He responded with "You want to? Now?" and of course we said yes, so we ended up going to the pool. It was kind of sort of not allowed, so we had to be really quiet and didn't stay too long, but he was really friendly and we talked a lot. We came back to change and watch Russia play Holland for EuroCup, but Desiree and I had to go planyorka instead. We thiiiiiiink Zhena might have gotten in trouble for letting us swim, since we walked back in with wet hair, clutching towels, and all the kids could clearly tell we'd been in the pool. But we haven't seen him since, so we can't really ask.
The weather today was not so nice, so we had our "Sport" class inside. We played Uno and Twister, Hand-Clap games and 7-Up, and I busted out my Blink! cards too (which was definitely a worthy buy in New York). Sometimes it's hard to play when you've got kids hanging off of you who just want to be on your team--then you have to figure out how to say "No teams! Everyone for themselves!" in Russian. I think I'm getting better--my ability to speak in Russian for longer periods of time is improving. After our lessons, a bunch of the girls swarmed us, asking for our e-mails and our "Avtographs," which I thought was pretty cool. We're basically stars. =P Not, but it was really cute. We traded e-mails with Taya (Tasya? Taya is maybe an even shorter name?) and Olga our helper, who asked if we could take Uno or Blink! to planyorka next time. Answer: Of course! It's really great knowing that something we showed them or brought is interesting enough for them to want to borrow it.
Tonight we have our song, and the other performances to watch, but we're pretty much done for the day, which is nice.
I feel like there's more that needs to be said, but I don't know what. I think about the other groups a lot, wondering how they're doing further out in Siberia, wondering if anyone is down to building houses out of mud and sticks. We've got an auditorium, and a ropes course, and a photography class--we're pretty freaking well off here. I would love to know how they've been: if Zack is just wowing kids with his Russian, if Sam is still arguing (by the order of Her Majesty the Queen) that potato chips are really called crisps, if Jacob let his kids shave his head. I suppose I'll find out soon enough.
[Aside: Misha (hard-ass Misha) is playing Mortal Kombat 3 right now and I'm sure he's losing, which is hysterical]
Finished The Poisonwood Bible. Highly recommended for any Book Club (or general self-improvement). Read Heart of Darkness first, and then watch Apocalypse Now after.
For the most part, I'm okay with being misunderstood. Every day there's a new story. Such as:
1: Nelli was handing out scarves to all the girls at the meeting, giving them pink ones. We'd been told we'd wear blue, since we're not quite counselors and we'd be working with both camps. I tried to tell her that we were getting blue scarves, but it just came out as "Blue for us" or "To us, blue" which, considering that "blue" is slang for homosexual, came out as "Her and I are gay."
2: Wandered into the wrong dorm and spent 10 minutes wondering how they had moved all our stuff out of room 4 and moved in another group so fast, and why we didn't recognize anyone, until a group leader told us to go up to the 4th floor and then we realized we had an entirely wrong building.
3: Instead of saying "Those boys I saw writing last night," I put the accent on the wrong part of the verb and said "Those boys I saw pissing last night."
4: When Egor offered us a candy with iron to make children strong, like bulls, and all I caught were the words "blood" and "bull" and thought this little candy bar would start bleeding bull blood as soon as I cracked it in half.
5: Accidentally implying Misha (Robin Hood) is a girl every time I talk to him.
Saturday, June 21, 2008
June 21, 2008 || First Day of Our Class: Sport
Took too long of a nap yesterday--didn't fall asleep nearly early enough. Yesterday we performed out fan dance in front of Robin Hood and Carolina again, and saw Robin Hood's plays as well--it was pretty funny to see half the staff dressed up like knights, Robin Hood, foreigners from Palestine, and sorceresses; I'll have to see if I can find pictures [http://www.robincamp.ru/summer2008.htm?id=79 we're in 12].
The kids are really eager to talk to us, which is awesome--we sit at the staff table for lunch and every time a group walks past, there's someone who shouts hello (either in English, Russian, or Japanese, since that's the focus of Carolina camp) or wishing us Bon Appetit in Russian. Even cuter is when children who haven't eaten any of their meal bring it over for us (nothing goes to waste in Russia). Normally they give it to their camp counselors or the other staff, but it's really cute when they give it to us. Desi gets it more than I, probably 'cause they're worried about her wasting away. Olga (different from Olya) caught me snacking on peanut butter today when the maid was washing our floor (there's still a lot of purple marks from earlier scraped elbows and the like). We talked a long time, making it quite impossible to read (I am THIS close to finishing the Poisonwood Bible, then on to fairy tales by Tolstoy), but it was really quite nice--I love talking to pretty much anyone here. It came up later when at lunch Taras stopped by to ask Desi and I if there was anything we'd like to eat that was American food--hamburgers, cheesburgers, anything from McDonald's he could bring for us (awesome, innit, that they all think we eat at McDonald's even though I can't even remember the last time I was there). I talked with Desiree, and we decided the only thing we might need is more peanut butter, if he could find it when we finished ours--which, Olga jumped in, would be very soon at the speed I was eating it out of my jar with my finger!
Today we led our first classes, too. We taught the kids "Animal Farm" (where you make animal noises to find your group with your eyes closed) and "Steal the Bacon;" with one of the groups we also did the human knot activity, and gave out stickers to the winners of each. Invariably, they ended up wanting to play Pioneerball (as in old Soviet Pioneer camp Pioneerball), which is played on a volleyball court. You throw the ball back and forth and the other team scores a point when you drop it. The only catch--after you catch the ball you can only take 3 steps before throwing.
It's interesting--with the younger groups, the more players you have the worse you do, since they're all jump at the same time and the ball STILL hits the ground.
It's going to be hard to remember everyone's name, so I think I'll make a quick post for those I can remember. It'll help me keep in line counselors and staff and all the rest.
As for today, we have one more lesson, and then I hope mom'll call tonight, even though we have a discotheque (for all you old French speakers out there) and we're going to planyorka too. Oh! And tomorrow Desi and I have to have a song memorized (in Russian AND in English) to sing for Den' Mira. (Day of Peace)
[PS. Carolina--day 3, picture 59 (sitting at Karate) and 15 (origami--ps do they pick the worst pictures on purpose? =P I'm just thankful to get in a shot here and there so mom knows I'm alive)
Also--Olya went to Moscow today, and all I asked her to buy me was a roll of toilet paper and some detergent for washing clothes. Living the simple life. =) ]
The kids are really eager to talk to us, which is awesome--we sit at the staff table for lunch and every time a group walks past, there's someone who shouts hello (either in English, Russian, or Japanese, since that's the focus of Carolina camp) or wishing us Bon Appetit in Russian. Even cuter is when children who haven't eaten any of their meal bring it over for us (nothing goes to waste in Russia). Normally they give it to their camp counselors or the other staff, but it's really cute when they give it to us. Desi gets it more than I, probably 'cause they're worried about her wasting away. Olga (different from Olya) caught me snacking on peanut butter today when the maid was washing our floor (there's still a lot of purple marks from earlier scraped elbows and the like). We talked a long time, making it quite impossible to read (I am THIS close to finishing the Poisonwood Bible, then on to fairy tales by Tolstoy), but it was really quite nice--I love talking to pretty much anyone here. It came up later when at lunch Taras stopped by to ask Desi and I if there was anything we'd like to eat that was American food--hamburgers, cheesburgers, anything from McDonald's he could bring for us (awesome, innit, that they all think we eat at McDonald's even though I can't even remember the last time I was there). I talked with Desiree, and we decided the only thing we might need is more peanut butter, if he could find it when we finished ours--which, Olga jumped in, would be very soon at the speed I was eating it out of my jar with my finger!
Today we led our first classes, too. We taught the kids "Animal Farm" (where you make animal noises to find your group with your eyes closed) and "Steal the Bacon;" with one of the groups we also did the human knot activity, and gave out stickers to the winners of each. Invariably, they ended up wanting to play Pioneerball (as in old Soviet Pioneer camp Pioneerball), which is played on a volleyball court. You throw the ball back and forth and the other team scores a point when you drop it. The only catch--after you catch the ball you can only take 3 steps before throwing.
It's interesting--with the younger groups, the more players you have the worse you do, since they're all jump at the same time and the ball STILL hits the ground.
It's going to be hard to remember everyone's name, so I think I'll make a quick post for those I can remember. It'll help me keep in line counselors and staff and all the rest.
As for today, we have one more lesson, and then I hope mom'll call tonight, even though we have a discotheque (for all you old French speakers out there) and we're going to planyorka too. Oh! And tomorrow Desi and I have to have a song memorized (in Russian AND in English) to sing for Den' Mira. (Day of Peace)
[PS. Carolina--day 3, picture 59 (sitting at Karate) and 15 (origami--ps do they pick the worst pictures on purpose? =P I'm just thankful to get in a shot here and there so mom knows I'm alive)
Also--Olya went to Moscow today, and all I asked her to buy me was a roll of toilet paper and some detergent for washing clothes. Living the simple life. =) ]
Friday, June 20, 2008
June 20, 2008 || Origami, Full Day
So we skipped out on morning exercises today to sleep in (you only have to go if you're leading the exercises, like Desiree and I are tomorrow). It's a good thing, too, because after planyorka yesterday we needed the extra rest.
Planyorka? After all the campers go to bed, the counselors get together and plan out the next day. This is planyorka. Yesterday our meeting started around 11, but I didn't crawl into bed until almost 1. We planned out the day, then sat around having tea and syshki while playing a game of Jenga that lasted, no joke, at least an entire hour. I've never met people so good at Jenga, either! Then again, we were playing for who would "rover" the kids during quiet time, making sure they were taking naps.
Anyway, back to today. I got my first gift at breakfast! From a little girl with whose group we sang yesterday. As far as I can tell it's a bundle of grass tied with another piece of grass, but I am actually really thankful for it--it was one of those "I don't really know what I'm eating for breakfast and I'm still tired and there was no toilet paper in the bathroom" days that instantly turned into "Ah! I'm making friends! They like me!" kind of ecstatic days. Hopefully I have more of the latter and less of the former.
After breakfast Desiree and I sat in on 3 origami lessons--I've gotten pretty good at the paper crane, if I do say so myself, but the cobra was beyond me. Furthermore, one pocket of my coat is stuffed with paper hearts and cranes and such that some of the other girls gave me--again, making me feel like this going to be a great experience. After that Sergei showed us how they make chain mail--they roll metal into coils, then clip the coils and somehow join them all--17,000, he said. He took us to a room in the back of the Club building, where we foud Masha, our new roommate (she's really cool and has done a lot of things--she hung pictures she'd taken over her bed and let us do the same with her extras, and cuts her tape on a hiking knife), a few other people, and all the climbing gear--and of course, the chain mail. On one wall hung at least 20 gas masks--I can't ever get over how eerie gas masks are. And in a setting like this, it reminded me of "Moscow Does Not Believe in Tears" and Omon Ra all at the same time. I don't know. Between the gas masks and Sadako I wish there was no such thing as war.
After this we'll have karate, and then we'll perform our fan dance again (you can see a picture of us in costume at that link I gave for Carolina/Girl Camp on day 2, page 4 I think--we're all in kimonos, that should make us easier to spot). I'm not sure where the rest of the night will take us, but tomorrow Desiree and I are leading a class, titled simply "Sport." It's so weird to think that I've only been 8 days gone.. it feels like a lifetime, if only because I'm so removed from everything back home (hint, hint... comments/e-mails would make me super happy).
Alright, I'm going to go grab a nap before night activities/karate, and let Desiree get online. Hopefully I'll be able to squeeze out a little bit of time online every day. =) But then again, it's Russia, so the Internet is prone to stop working for no reason all the time.
Planyorka? After all the campers go to bed, the counselors get together and plan out the next day. This is planyorka. Yesterday our meeting started around 11, but I didn't crawl into bed until almost 1. We planned out the day, then sat around having tea and syshki while playing a game of Jenga that lasted, no joke, at least an entire hour. I've never met people so good at Jenga, either! Then again, we were playing for who would "rover" the kids during quiet time, making sure they were taking naps.
Anyway, back to today. I got my first gift at breakfast! From a little girl with whose group we sang yesterday. As far as I can tell it's a bundle of grass tied with another piece of grass, but I am actually really thankful for it--it was one of those "I don't really know what I'm eating for breakfast and I'm still tired and there was no toilet paper in the bathroom" days that instantly turned into "Ah! I'm making friends! They like me!" kind of ecstatic days. Hopefully I have more of the latter and less of the former.
After breakfast Desiree and I sat in on 3 origami lessons--I've gotten pretty good at the paper crane, if I do say so myself, but the cobra was beyond me. Furthermore, one pocket of my coat is stuffed with paper hearts and cranes and such that some of the other girls gave me--again, making me feel like this going to be a great experience. After that Sergei showed us how they make chain mail--they roll metal into coils, then clip the coils and somehow join them all--17,000, he said. He took us to a room in the back of the Club building, where we foud Masha, our new roommate (she's really cool and has done a lot of things--she hung pictures she'd taken over her bed and let us do the same with her extras, and cuts her tape on a hiking knife), a few other people, and all the climbing gear--and of course, the chain mail. On one wall hung at least 20 gas masks--I can't ever get over how eerie gas masks are. And in a setting like this, it reminded me of "Moscow Does Not Believe in Tears" and Omon Ra all at the same time. I don't know. Between the gas masks and Sadako I wish there was no such thing as war.
After this we'll have karate, and then we'll perform our fan dance again (you can see a picture of us in costume at that link I gave for Carolina/Girl Camp on day 2, page 4 I think--we're all in kimonos, that should make us easier to spot). I'm not sure where the rest of the night will take us, but tomorrow Desiree and I are leading a class, titled simply "Sport." It's so weird to think that I've only been 8 days gone.. it feels like a lifetime, if only because I'm so removed from everything back home (hint, hint... comments/e-mails would make me super happy).
Alright, I'm going to go grab a nap before night activities/karate, and let Desiree get online. Hopefully I'll be able to squeeze out a little bit of time online every day. =) But then again, it's Russia, so the Internet is prone to stop working for no reason all the time.
Thursday, June 19, 2008
Robin Hood/Carolina Camp
Well, I'm back in Russia. It's a year later, but everything is quite as I remember it: the weather surprises me on a daily basis (I'm glad I brought an umbrella, jeans, and t-shirts), the candy is wonderful, and the people are as nice as can be.
I think it hit me sometime last night, how different I still feel here. Now, keep in mind, I was up on stage with a pair of Japanese fans covering my face, while Japanese music played in the background. Over the music, children were crying out "Ross-i-ya, Ross-i-ya!" which is how they say Russia in Russian. Like any non-Americans, they were going crazy for their soccer team--Russia was just about to play Sweden in the EuroCup finals (they won, by the way).
Darn! I've got to run. I had a friend looking over my shoulder and trying to explain other things to me--he's one of the photographers, and totally cool, I can't help but lose time writing here to talk to him. =) Anyway, hopefully I'll be able to add more to this later--or at least my own journal!
Alright, back for a bit. So last night we were practicing our Japanese fan dance while they were projecting the Russian football match on our faces. Why? Because even Russian children get to stay up late to watch their favorite team play football. Today we performed the fan dance in front of all of Carolina camp, and also we performed a traditional tea ceremony. I don't know how I ended up there, but I was the leader of the tea ceremony. Does anyone else feel the irony in this? An American girl serving as a Japanese tea ceremon-ist in a Russia children camp? Love it.
Anyway, today was our first full/real day of camp. We woke up around 7:45 so we could make morning exercises at 8:10--surprise, we got to lead them! Basically there was a lot of jumping around and waving of arms just to get the kids' blood flowing for the day. Then they had to go back and clean their rooms for inspection while we took a shower. Only about an hour ago, when I went to the cafeteria for dinner, did I notice that near the door there's a list for each group's room, and next to it a neutral, sad, or happy face, and the nearest little girl explained that that was for their room inspections. Desiree wants to get on the computer too, so quickly: we also played Pioneer Ball with a group of kids, sat with the youngest Carolina group (our first week here is all with Carolina, the second all with Robin Hood) [girlcamp.ru and robincamp.ru] during a music lesson, where we sang a bunch of different songs--and we're preparing one to sing at the closing ceremony, with English and Russian, and one about Sadako (you remember, Sadako and her paper cranes... although it was a touch awkward listening to a lecture about Hiroshima and Nagasaki with a bunch of 8 and 9-year-olds). This was also the first place we made some friends--for me, Dasha, Nina, Sveta, Dasha again... and I can't remember all their names. A little girl crawled into Desiree's lap, very tired, and told her "I love you" in English, which made us all who understood laugh. What else, wha--oh! We did the opening ceremony for the camp, where all the groups got together in a sort of parade and showed off poems they wrote, signs they made, and the names they gave their groups, and we danced a bit again (had our first discotheque last night), and raised the Russian flag. Later tonight we will judge drawings of "Russian rooms" and announce a winner... and go to our first counselor planning meeting. I think I'm going to get very used to little sleep and eating peanut butter out of my jar.
More when I have time... but I don't feel like I'll ever have enough time to tell you all about it!
OH! And before I forget.... check these website often, you can see pictures of Desiree and I on there:
www.robincamp.ru >> (the photo site:http://www.robincamp.ru/summer2008.htm?id=10)www.girlcamp.ru >> (the photo site:http://www.girlcamp.ru/photos/summer2008.htm)
Look under "CMEHA 2" and then each day: DEHb 1, 2, 3.." etc.
(for day one on Robin Hood, we're aroud pictures 3, 39-42ish, and 46... this is also a great way to see what our camp looks like)
I think it hit me sometime last night, how different I still feel here. Now, keep in mind, I was up on stage with a pair of Japanese fans covering my face, while Japanese music played in the background. Over the music, children were crying out "Ross-i-ya, Ross-i-ya!" which is how they say Russia in Russian. Like any non-Americans, they were going crazy for their soccer team--Russia was just about to play Sweden in the EuroCup finals (they won, by the way).
Darn! I've got to run. I had a friend looking over my shoulder and trying to explain other things to me--he's one of the photographers, and totally cool, I can't help but lose time writing here to talk to him. =) Anyway, hopefully I'll be able to add more to this later--or at least my own journal!
Alright, back for a bit. So last night we were practicing our Japanese fan dance while they were projecting the Russian football match on our faces. Why? Because even Russian children get to stay up late to watch their favorite team play football. Today we performed the fan dance in front of all of Carolina camp, and also we performed a traditional tea ceremony. I don't know how I ended up there, but I was the leader of the tea ceremony. Does anyone else feel the irony in this? An American girl serving as a Japanese tea ceremon-ist in a Russia children camp? Love it.
Anyway, today was our first full/real day of camp. We woke up around 7:45 so we could make morning exercises at 8:10--surprise, we got to lead them! Basically there was a lot of jumping around and waving of arms just to get the kids' blood flowing for the day. Then they had to go back and clean their rooms for inspection while we took a shower. Only about an hour ago, when I went to the cafeteria for dinner, did I notice that near the door there's a list for each group's room, and next to it a neutral, sad, or happy face, and the nearest little girl explained that that was for their room inspections. Desiree wants to get on the computer too, so quickly: we also played Pioneer Ball with a group of kids, sat with the youngest Carolina group (our first week here is all with Carolina, the second all with Robin Hood) [girlcamp.ru and robincamp.ru] during a music lesson, where we sang a bunch of different songs--and we're preparing one to sing at the closing ceremony, with English and Russian, and one about Sadako (you remember, Sadako and her paper cranes... although it was a touch awkward listening to a lecture about Hiroshima and Nagasaki with a bunch of 8 and 9-year-olds). This was also the first place we made some friends--for me, Dasha, Nina, Sveta, Dasha again... and I can't remember all their names. A little girl crawled into Desiree's lap, very tired, and told her "I love you" in English, which made us all who understood laugh. What else, wha--oh! We did the opening ceremony for the camp, where all the groups got together in a sort of parade and showed off poems they wrote, signs they made, and the names they gave their groups, and we danced a bit again (had our first discotheque last night), and raised the Russian flag. Later tonight we will judge drawings of "Russian rooms" and announce a winner... and go to our first counselor planning meeting. I think I'm going to get very used to little sleep and eating peanut butter out of my jar.
More when I have time... but I don't feel like I'll ever have enough time to tell you all about it!
OH! And before I forget.... check these website often, you can see pictures of Desiree and I on there:
www.robincamp.ru >> (the photo site:http://www.robincamp.ru/summer2008.htm?id=10)www.girlcamp.ru >> (the photo site:http://www.girlcamp.ru/photos/summer2008.htm)
Look under "CMEHA 2" and then each day: DEHb 1, 2, 3.." etc.
(for day one on Robin Hood, we're aroud pictures 3, 39-42ish, and 46... this is also a great way to see what our camp looks like)
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)